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“It is a man 



The 


Fortunes of Life 

OR 

Struggles of The Ornshield Family 

BY EMILY NONNEN 


FROM THE SWEDISH 

BY E. W. OLSON 

% 

WITH 7 ILLUSTRATIONS 
BY JENNY NYSTROM 

CHICAGO 

THE ENGBBRG-HOLMBERG PUB. CO, 
1909 



I 


Copyright 1909 by 

THE ENGBERG-HOLMBERG PUB. CO. 



FOREWORD 


“TKe Fortunes of Life, or Struggles of The 
Ornshield Family,” is one of a number of e^c- 
cellent stories by Family Nonnen, an authoress 
whose family, originally from Holland, in the 
early part of the last century settled in Lon- 
don, where she was born 1812. In 1819 the Non- 
nen family moved to Gothenburg. She as well 
as her brother were well educated, the latter 
obtaining prominence in various ways. The 
stories by Emily Nonnen, first published from 
1859 to - 1864, have had a wide circulation 
throughout Sv/eden, and are as popular as 
ever. Written principally for the edification of 
the youth of both sexes, they are nevertheless 
of interest to more mature readers. 

The booK in hand is illustrated by Jenny 
Nystrom, one of the most productive and 
prominent Swedish illustrators of the present 
period. 

A companion booK to “The Fortunes of 
Life” Pears the title “The Ruby Ring,” or Truth 
will Prevail.” 


CONTENTS 


Page 

Foreword ; 3 

I. Ornholm 5 

II. The Christmas tree 9 

III. The blind beggar 15 

IV. Serena 20 

V. A terrible night 24 

VI. A fateful day 33 

VII. The departure 46 

VIII. The new home 51 

IX. The storm • 57 

X. Leaving home 66 

XI. The basket maker 71 

XII. Spreading the wings 83 

XIII. In the frozen North 93 

XIV. Winter quarters 105 

XV. The Bay of God’s Mercy 122 

XVI. A vain search 134 

XVII. Memorable hours 137 

XVIII. News 147 

XIX. The return 160 



I. 

ORNHOLM. 

a picturesque part of one of the western 
provinces of Sweden lies the beautiful estate 
^ of Ornholm. The manse with its two wings 
loomed castle-like on a knoll from which a green 
lawn studded with flower-beds sloped gently down 
to a pretty lake fringed with woods. 

Whether the broad leaves and white chalices of 
the waterlilies rested on the glassy waters near the 
shore and the thrush sang in the dark pines, or 
the lake was frozen over and the flowers slumbered 
beneath the snowdrifts, there was always life and 
bustle on the large estate, where flourmills, sawmills 
and blast furnaces were in constant operation. 

Although Ornholm had been in the possession 
of the Ornshield family as an entailed estate for 
several generations, it seemed for a time as though 

5 


6 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


the former lord of the manor would be the last of 
his line to hold possession. But at last a son was 
born, the present owner, who was married to his 
cousin, the pretty Axiane Elgencrown, 

Squire Ornshield was a man of sterling worth 
and uncommon energy. He was solicitous for the 
welfare of his employees, always seeking to improve 
their condition together with that of the estate. 
He cheerfully superintended the various branches 
of work on the estate and often made journeys in 
the interest of the community as well as in his own 
behalf. 

The estate grew considerably in value under 
his care, and his workmen looked up with confidence 
and respect to a master who always acted for their 
best. But there is a limit to every man’s powers, 
and what the estate and its employees gained was 
a loss to the squire’s own family. So deeply was 
he engrossed in business cares that he had but few 
moments to spare for his wife and children. 

Eady Ornshield was a good and lovable woman 
who had all that life could yield of love, wealth 
and grace, lacking only the ability to enjoy them 
rightly. A life of luxury had made her sick and 
nervous, she was extremely frail and delicate, sub- 
ject to the orders ofi physicians, and upon their 


ORNHOLM 


7 


advice went from one watering place to another in 
search of health. 

Thus, their three children, Harold, Valborg 
and Ellen, grew up with but little guidance from 
their parents- They were bright, lively, healthful 
children, well equipped as to body and mind, but 
without the watchful care of the parents and with 
frequent changes of governess and tutor at the 
whim of the pupils themselves, they grew self-willed, 
disobedient, haughty and ungovernable. 

The Ornshield family having long been the 
most prominent in the neighborhood, of course the 
neighbors and associates flattered and coddled these 
wonderful children beyond all bounds, especially 
was this the case with the servants who had grown 
gray in the service. 

The one who went farthest in her attentions 
to them was old Elsa, who had nursed the squire 
from his birth and now transferred her affections 
to the children. Her pride in the family was, in 
fact, greater than that of the members themselves. 
She implanted in the children’s minds the maxim 
that an Ornshield was something extraordinarily 
great, and they soon got the idea that the world 
was made for their sake and their will was law to 
those about them. This same idea governed their 


8 


THK FORTUNES OF FIFE 


behavior toward each other, and petty quarrels and 
bickerings were of daily occurrence. 

At times the squire found a little leisure to 
devote himself to the children. Then he took mat- 
ters in hand, to be sure. A veritable thunder-storm 
passed over the household and cleared the sky. 
Harold became more tractable, Valborg awakened 
from her dreams and delighted her governess with 
unusual diligence, while little Ellen’s face, rid of 
coquettish airs, beamed in its natural comeliness. 
So all went pleasantly for a while, but as soon as 
the squire was once more busy with outside matters, 
things fell back gradually into their old ways. The 
young people, who vaunted themselves on their 
superiority, and really might have made life pleas- 
urable, nevertheless were unhappy, lacking, as they 
did, that inward peace which, like the glow-worm, 
makes the surroundings brighter. 



11 . 

THE CHRISTMAS TREE. 

was a bright, beautiful winter morning a 
few days before Christmas. That year winter 
^ had come early. The inland lake already lay 
bound in icy shackles; the reeds were sticking up 
like the lances of a great army of yore; the red 
haws, glazed over with a thin crust of ice, glit- 
tered and shone in the sunlight. 

Jubilant young voices rang through the still 
morning air. The three Ornshield children came 
riding in the big sleigh down the slope and across 
the lake, bound for the forest. Nils, the forester, 
followed in the tracks with a woodchopper’s axe 
on his shoulder. It was always a merry day for 
the children when the Christmas tree was to be 
picked out and brought home from the woods, and 
seldom if ever had this annual excursion been fa- 
vored with such fine weather. 

9 


lO 


THK FORTUNES OF FIFE 


Having crossed the lake, they drove up a road 
that took them straight into the thick forest. There 
the snow lay deep and spotless, glistening in the sun- 
light like a mantle of white velvet studded with 
myriads of diamonds. No human foot had sullied 
its whiteness. Only the light tracks of the hare 
stretched like a chain across it. Pines centuries 
old, with moss hanging like gray beards from their 
branches, stood bending under the burden of snow. 
Not a breeze stirred, not a twig moved, and no 
sound broke the silence, except the occasional thud 
of a pine-cone dropping to the ground or the crunch- 
ing sound of a squirrel gnawing at a nut. 

There was something awe-inspiring about the 
great silence of the forest compelling the children 
to speak in subdued tones. 

“Isn’t this beautiful!” said Valborg in a half- 
whisper. “I’d rather be here than in the most 
splendid reception hall.” 

“I just wonder how long you’ll think so,” 
Ellen remarked insidiously. “I wish some kind 
fairy would give me some real diamonds like these” — 
she pointed to the frosted grasses — “so that I might 
dazzle, too.” 

“Do you ever think of anything but finery?” 
asked Harold in derision. 


THK CHRISTMAS TRKK 


1 1 


“That picture papa bought from Arnell, the 
artist, you know, which everybody raves about, 
isn’t anything to this,’’ Valborg resumed, taking in 
the landscape with a sweeping glance. “Oh if I 
could only paint!’’ she exclaimed, adding, “at any 
rate, if papa keeps his promise and gives me a box 
of paints for Christmas, I’ll show you.’’ 

“lyisten to that! She thinks she can paint,” 
sneered Harold. “You’d better learn sewing and 
cooking. Didn’t you hear old Baron Tindenstam 
say the other day that’s the only thing fit for a 
woman to do, and so says the teacher, too.” 

“What do they know about it? At any rate, 
I want to tell you, Harold, that it’s horrid of 
you to want me to do such simple things as cook- 
ing and sewing and fancy work. That’s too tedious 
for me, and the I^indenstam girls are only too wel- 
come to it.” 

“You’re tire.some yourself, that’s why you think 
everything else tiresome, except dabbling with colors. 
I have wishes of my own: I’d like a pony, 
and neither the preacher’s boys nor Willie Ronnberg 
are going to use it. Nobody but myself is going 
to ride it. But if I don’t get a pony, I want a 
gold watch and chain with a seal for a charm. 


12 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


You know, all the other boys but me have watches, 
haven’t they, Ellen? Isn’t that a shame?” 

“Why, Harold Ornshield, what great expecta- 
tions you have!” Turning to Valborg: “But we’ll 
surely get new dresses. Elsa told me mamma 
brought home such perfectly lovely goods the last 
time she was in town.” 

“It’s a good thing, then, the children’s balls 
they’re going to have at Odensvik and Norrefors 
didn’t come off before Christmas, as we hadn’t a 
thing to wear.” 

“Indeed we didn’t, for Elsa says it won’t do 
to wear the same things all the time. We must 
uphold our dignity, you know. I just wonder how 
they’ll trim our dresses. Mine’ll be pink and yours 
blue, I think, and ...” 

“Do hush up about those dresses,” Harold 
broke in. “To my notion, an Ornshield is an Orn- 
shield, regardless of all gewgaws.” 

“Still you’re hankering after a gold watch and 
chain, aren’t you?” 

“That will do. Here’s Nils waiting, axe in 
hand. Which tree shall we choose?” 

“Do you know,” said Valborg, putting her 
hand on her brother’s arm,” I can never see these 


THE CHRISTMAS TREK 


13 


snowclad pines without recalling what Serena once 
said when we were here . . ” 

“Please don’t repeat any of the foolish things 
Serena has said, for I simply can’t bear it,’’ Harold 
replied, impatiently shaking her off. “Tell me 
which tree you like best. This one?’’ He pointed 
to the one Nils had started to chop down. 

“Oh no!’’ the girls shouted in unison, “this 
one is much prettier.” 

“Not a bit finer than this one?” Harold retorted. 

“Yes, it is,” they insisted, and so a quarrel 
started in the peaceful forest where the squirrel 
peeped out of his hole and the hare stopped in his 
tracks, pricking up his ears and wondering why 
human beings always must kick up a fuss when 
the world at large is such a peaceful and pleasant 
place. 

At last old Nils made peace among them by 
proposing that both trees be cut down. 

“You will want two of them anyway,” he 
suggested, and so the youngsters calmed down, and 
two handsome young evergreens were cut and placed 
in the sleigh, and the party returned home. Upon 
reaching the front door, the children had another 
noisy disagreement over where to put away the 


14 


THK FORTUNES OF LIFE 


trees for the time being. Finally Ellen flew into 
a huff and shouted: 

“I wish those Christmas trees were at the 
bottom of the lake this minute, for all the fuss there’s 
been over them. And I’d supposed we’d have such 
a good time bringing them home. Do leave them 
where they are and come and play’ ’ she commanded, 
putting her little foot down hard. “Papa and 
mamma are coming home in the evening and we 
ought to arrange some pleasant surprise for them. 
Let’s make snow lanterns.’’ 

So they went to work. A lot of snowballs 
were made and piled up into hollow pyramids. 
After dark, they would put candles inside and have 
a fine illumination. They all worked with great 
enthusiasm for a little while, until some trifle gave 
rise to new quarrels. 


THE BLIND BEGGAR 



m 

\k 


of a sudden, Valborg called out: “Here 
comes Klsa down the stairs. She has a 
grave and important look. I wonder what 
she has to tell us now?” 

“What’s the news, Klsa?” they all shouted. 
“We are having such a dreary time of it, so do 
come and tell us something interesting.” 

“Poor dears! Well, what I could tell isn’t 
pleasant, and, besides, it’s a secret, and you know 
I’m no gossip.” 

“A secret, is it? Come now, Klsa, you must 
tell us. Dear, sweet, darling Klsa, please do tell 
us! We’ll never let on.” 

“Oh well, I suppose you know it already.” 

“What is it, then?” 

“Miss Serena is coming today.” 

15 


i6 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


“Serena, that old prude. Then all our Christmas 
joy is spoiled.” 

Elsa shook her head and proceeded: 

“Her father has gone on a long journey, and 
while he is away the young lady has been sent to 
boarding school, where things are frightfully dull. 
The baron, who always is so kind heard of this 
and at once invited her to spend the holidays here. 
It was to be a surprise for you, but as I knew how 
sorry you would be, I thought best to prepare you 
for it.” 

“A nice surprise, indeed, to have that girl 
come here and go around looking goody-goody and 
have everybody vow she is such a good girl and pa 
and ma hoping we were like her.” 

“And to think how poorly she’s dressed,” Ellen 
chimed in. “I’m ashamed to. be seen in her com- 
pany.” 

‘That’s no fault of hers, poor thing. For her 
father is both poor and stingy, though he be an 
Ornshield.” 

‘The worst of it all is that she conies just at 
Christmas time,” shouted Harold in vexation and 
stamped his foot on the ground so hard that the 
snow pyramids seemed to totter. 

Just then a plaintive voice was heard to say: 











. -snu 




“I do not see your grand house,’’ quote he 



THE BLIND BEGGAR 


^7 


“Kind friends, please help a poor blind man.” 

“Who are you?” Harold inquired sharply. “Go 
away, we have no time for beggars.” 

The poor blind beggar was an old man with 
weazen face and stringy gray hair. He had ap- 
proached the group of youngsters guided by a big 
black dog. 

“Kind friends,” continued the mendicant, “I 
can see but a faint suggestion of God’s fair sun- 
light, but in my home village I was told that in 
Gothenburg there is an eye infirmary in charge of 
a good doctor who has cured many. Now I am on 
my way there to find out whether there is any help 
for me. Kind young friends — that you are .young 
I can tell by your voices — please help me a little. 
I am an old man who can’t go far at a time and 
it’s many miles to Gothenburg.” 

As he stretched out his hand for the hoped-for 
gift, Valborg gave a sudden scream: 

“The mean old dog! See, how he’s spoiled my 
pretty snow lantern.” 

The old man sought to stop the dog from do- 
ing further mischief, but blind as he was, he stum- 
bled right over Harold’s pyramid. It fell in a heap 
and Harold flew into a towering rage. Although 
not naturally brutal, he lost all control of himself 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


i8 

in his present irritable state of mind, and broke 
forth in a most violent temper: 

“Get out of here at once, you nasty old beg- 
gar, or I’ll make you! D’ye see that house? That’s 
Ornholm, and you may be sure w^e’ve got men 
enough to chase away every last tramp that comes 
nosing around. Go on with ye!” 

The old man straightened himself up to his 
full height. His beclouded eyes quivered, and tak- 
ing a firm grip on his cudgel, he raised it as if in 
self-defense. The iron gray locks shook as he spoke 
in deep, determined tones: 

“Your house I cannot see, but a curse be over 
it! Woe unto the house, where the poor are railed 
at: it shall soon fall. Those who boast of their 
earthly glory shall soon find that it is no longer 
theirs; then they shall depart with tears. For so 
says Holy Writ, ‘Woe unto the man who taketh no 
pity on the suffering’.’’ 

The children were terrorstricken , and no one 
moved from the spot until the blind beggar had 
disappeared. 

The first to speak was Ellen. 

“Harold,’’ said she, “hurry after him and give 
him something. This is too horrible,” she added, 
and burst into toars. 


THE BLIND BEGGAR 


19 


Harold was just going to start after the old 
man, when they noticed that old Elsa had turned 
pale as a corpse. Seeing that she was about to fall 
in a faint, they rushed to her support and tried to 
bring her to. At length she was heard to mumble: 

“The wretched old man, what was it he said? 
Save us from all evil! Hurry up and find him, and 
don’t let him leave here empty-handed.” 

The children all started off down the road. 
They looked for him in every direction, but in vain. 
Finally they returned to the house, downcast and 
gloomy. 



IV. 

SERENA. 

was on a cold winter night. A bright blaze 
crackled in the fireplace, and several table 
^ lamps lit up the room. On a tray a samo- 
var was steaming, and about the whole house was 
an air of good cheer. 

Hush! There’s the sound of sleighbells. The 
baroness went to the door and met a timid little 
girl, whom she received most cordially. 

“Welcome, dear child!’’ she said and gave her 
a warm embrace. “But you are cold, little Serena.’’ 
She took her hands between her own and tried to 
warm them. “You must be too thinly dressed. 
Come and sit here by the fire, but not too near. 
Valborg, dear, will you kindly make room for 
Serena?’’ 


20 


SKRENA 


21 


The girl whom the baroness gave such a hearty 
reception was about twelve years of age. She was 
not so well developed as her cousins Valborg and 
Ellen, nor as pretty as they, but there was a charm 
about her girlish face, and through her brown eyes 
looked such a pure soul that in her presence one 
forgot mere outward beauty for the sweetness and 
unconscious innocence that beamed from those eyes. 

The Ornshield girls suffered from this silent 
comparison, and as she greeted them pleasantly, 
they shrank back coldly and eyed her oldfashioned 
and well-worn garments in critical silence. 

The countess did not for a moment fail in her 
attentions. “Now, Serena dear, you must come and 
have some nice warm tea, for you must be cold and 
hungry too.” 

She poured a steaming cupful and placed before 
her a plate of coffee-bread just out of the oven. 

Serena ate and drank with an enormous appetite. 

“You certainly were hungry, dear child. Maybe 
they sent no lunch with you.” 

“Oh, yes, dear auntie, I had a whole basket- 
ful.” 

“It was not in the sleigh,” Elsa interrupted. 
“I had the young lady’s things all carried up- 
stairs.” 


22 


THE FORTUNES OF EIFE 


The countess looked inquiringly at Serena, who 
blushed deeply. The children crowded around and 
Harold asked impertinently what had become of the 
basket, 

Serena did not give an immediate answer. She 
told a story that explained all. When Andrew, the 
coachman, had stopped to rest the horses, she heard 
a rustling among the leaves at the wayside. At 
first she was frightened, but picking up courage, she 
alighted from the sleigh and went over to see. She 
found an old man with gray hair and eyes fixed in 
a strange stare. He was very, very pale, and she 
thought at first that he was dead, but when he 
gave signs of life, she hurriedly brought her lunch 
basket, which she handed him. As he fumbled for 
it, she perceived that he was blind. Taking the 
proffered gift, the old man muttered: 

The poor give, the rich say nay; 

God will punish and He repay. 

“I wish she wouldn’t begin by telling such 
unpleasant stories,” Harold thought to himself, and 
felt very uncomfortable, but struggled to keep up a 
cheerful appearance. Ellen, on the other hand, had 
grown so pale that Serena kindly asked whether she 
had been taken suddenly ill. 


SERENA 


23 


Serena’s little narrative, so simple and inno- 
cently told, had made a lasting impression on the 
children in the Ornshield familj^, and whenever the 
parents’ backs were turned they gave the little 
stranger such haughty and humiliating treatment, 
that she was unable at times to conceal her in- 
jured feelings. She often cried bitterly and said 
she would pray to God that she might go back to 
the boarding school. 


V. 


A TERRIBLE NIGHT 

S HRISTMAS KVK always was celebrated with 
great joy and festivity at Ornholm, and this 
year was no exception to the rule. Accord- 
ing to custom, a crowd of young people were invited. 
Two Christmas trees shone and glittered on a table 
laden with presents. When these were distributed, 
there was joy unlimited, with possibly a dissonant 
note mingling now and then in the jubilant chorus, 
for admiration of gifts received does not always 
preclude envy at those given to others. There was 
joy on this Christmas eve, too, but it was not all 
of the right kind. But the one who received the 
fewest and cheapest presents was the happiest of 
all in this case, and that one was Serena. She was 
also pleased at the more costly things given to the 
24 









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Serena, help me!” 


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A 'TERRIBLT^ NIGHl" 


25 


others, and her warm brown eyes beamed with 
genuine delight. 

Rate in the night the jolly party broke up. 
The invited guests departed for home and as the 
family members retired to their sleeping rooms, 
silence fell over the great mansion. Tlie servants 
had finished the last of many duties for the day 
preceding the great holiday. The housekeeper had 
seen to it that everything was put in its right place, 
while Tady Ornshield herself made a final round 
through the rooms to assure herself that all the 
candles were out. 

The only one who had no desire to go to sleep 
was Valborg. Tighted by a small candle which 
she carried in her hand, she entered the deserted 
rooms after all had retired, gathered up the 
presents that lay strewn about and stood viewing 
with almost melancholy expression the desolation 
wrought by the merrymakers. 

At last she too grew sleepy, and candle in 
hand she started back to the west wing where the 
girls had their rooms. 

The long corridors were cold and dark and so 
still that they gave back the sound of her footsteps. 
As she hurried shivering to the door of her room, 
she stopped suddenly and sniffed the air suspicious- 


26 


THK FORTUNES OF FIFE 


ly. There was the smell of smoke in the air. 
Frightened, she looked around and discovered smoke 
penetrating through a crack in the door at the foot 
of the stairs. 

She hesitated for an instant, then rushed back, 
rang every bell, pounded on every door, shouting: 
“Fire! fire! — Help!” In a second all were on their 
feet, some in their night clothes, others fully dressed, 
having not yet retired when the alarm was given. 

The people below stairs quickly opened the 
door through which the smoke was penetrating, 
but it was found impossible to pass down that way, 
for the stairway was already on fire and the red 
tongues of flame were licking the walls, while 
sparks flew thick and fast through the heavy masses 
of smoke that rolled upwards 

From below Eady Ornshield shrieked out the 
names of her daughters and was about to plunge 
into the flames and up the stairs. 

“Out, everybody! Quick! A ladder to the 
second story window!” The squire gave his com- 
mands in quick succession like the reports of a 
rapid-fire gun, as he rushed out of the house 
by the hand his wife, who was almost 
frenzied with fear. 

Now the fire-bell at the manorliouse began 


A TKRRIBI.E NIGHl" 


27 


ringing, it having been started by Harold. People 
came rushing up from all directions and got the 
fire extinguishers into action. The building was 
now ablaze, sparks and fire brands were hurled high 
in the air and the stillness of the night was rent 
far and wide by shouting, ringing of bells and the 
roar of the flames. 

The only calm person in the crowd was the 
squire himself, whose commands rang out over all 
the other noises: 

“Here with the ladder! Up with it to the 
window — quick !“ 

From the upper floor comes agonized calls for 
help, at first piercing, but growing fainter as the 
smoke thickened and stifled the cries of the prison- 
ers above. Uady Ornshield was on the verge of 
insanity. 

Harold and others held the ladder. He wanted 
to mount it, but the squire said no. 

“You stay down here with mother,” he ordered; 
“I will save them myself, with the help of God.” 

A face appeared at the window. It was that 
of Serena. 

“Here’s KHen,” she called out, “Come and 
save her, uncle, she is unable to stand.” 

The next instant the squire was at the top of 


28 ^ THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


the ladder, seized his daughter in his arms and 
climbed down, calling to Serena to follow him. 

Scorched by the flames and soaked with water, 
he placed the unconscious girl in her mother’s arms. 

“Any one else missing?” — he inquired. 

“Old Elsa was to sleep upstairs tonight,” 
some one said. 

Quick as a wink the squire again mounted the 
ladder. 

“Dear Thorsten, let some one else go this time,” 
pleaded his wife. 

“No, my dear, Elsa has been like a mother to 
me and mine. If possible, I will save -her myself. 
I’ll entrust her life to no one else.” 

So saying, he hastened up and disappeared 
through the window. 

It was a terrible moment. Every minute that 
passed seemed an eternity. 

At length he again appeared at the window, 
dragging with him the faithful old servant. The 
woman was blackened with smoke and soot, her 
clothes were partly burnt from her body and what 
remained of them was soaked with water, rendering 
her almost unrecognizable. She shrieked and gib- 
bered, having seemingly gone mad from fright. 

“Its a punishment for what I’ve done, and 


A TERRIBI.K NIGHT 


29 


still I meant so well, may the Eord forgive me.” 
Suddenly she would fall into a frenzy and her 
shrill voice could be heard over all else. 

The squire and his wife did all in their power 
to quiet her. They sought to learn what she meant 
by accusing herself, but could get nothing out of her. 

They inferred that the fire had started in her 
room. Tired out as she was, she had possibly 
diropped asleep leaving her candle burning near the 
curtains or other inflammable materials. 

By extreme efforts the people managed to get 
the fire under control before it had spread from the 
west wing to the main structure. The damage, 
therefore, was not as great as had been feared, 
being confined to the destruction of only a part of 
that wing. This fact they sought to impress on 
old Klsa’s mind in order to comfort her, but she 
could not be made to understand. She persisted in 
charging herself with the catastrophe and kept 
calling out loudly in her despair: 

“It’s a punishment from God. Now I know 
what a terrible sin I have committed. O Tord, 
forgive me. I cannot expect forgiveness from men.” 

When the squire entered the room in which 
the woman was placed, she seemed to get worse. 
One moment she would look on him with kindness, 


30 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


the next she would turn away from him with a 
scream of horror, while copious tears streamed down 
her furrowed cheeks. 

The doctor, who lived close by, was called 
at once. 

“The burns,” said he, after an examination, 
“I do not consider serious, but her age and still 
more her mental state tend to aggravate her condi- 
tion.” His advice was to gratify her wishes by 
calling in the pastor. He next asked to see the 
other sufferer. Miss Ellen. He found the poor girl 
in terrible pain. 

When she and Serena, who slept in the same 
room, noticed the smell of smoke, they at once 
jumped out of their beds and ran out into the 
corridor. • Then Serena remembered that old Elsa 
was to sleep that night in the same wing of the 
mansion. She told Ellen to save herself, while she 
herself ran to wake the old lady. Ellen obeyed, 
but as she was hurrying down the flight of stairs 
she stumbled and fell. Stunned for a moment, she 
lay helpless, a prey to the most grewsome thoughts. 
She heard the fire crackling in the woodwork around 
her, and felt the smoke gradually choking her. 
No one but Serena would hear her call for help, 
and she might not. 


A TERRIBLE NIGHT 


31 


“Serena, Serena, help!” — she called in anguish, 
as soon as she came to, and at once the girl was 
at her side. With almost supernatural strength, 
the slight young girl lifted up the limp form of 
her larger companion, who was totally helpless from 
fright, and carried her up the steps and over to 
the window at the end of the corridor, from which 
help was to come. 

Meanwhile she saw Elsa run like mad from 
her room and disappear in the mass of smoke. 
She called to her, but received no reply, and Serena 
felt sure she had got down before the stairway 
had caught fire. 

Instead the old lady had crawled into a corner 
at the other end of the corridor. There she lay 
almost suffocated when the squire found her. When 
he picked her up she resisted, mumbling: “Let 
me die here.” But he dragged her with him, 
through flames and smoke, at the risk of his 
own life. 

Regaining consciousness, Ellen felt pains in her 
back and side and she could hardly move. The 
doctor comforted her by saying that the pains 
would soon leave her, but the girl, being unused 
to suffering, was extremely impatient and cried 
most pitifully. These were sad days for Lady Orn- 


32 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


shield, who only left her daughter’s bedside to visit 
that of old Elsa, but she stood the nervous strain 
bravely and performed her task with true motherly 
love and beautiful self-sacrifice. 


VI. 

A FATEFUL DAY. 


S HK faithful old serving-woman had passed to 
her reward. Fortunately she did not have 
to suffer long. After having talked with 
the venerable pastor, she grew calmer, and soon 
after she lost the power of speech. 

Her efforts to make herself understood were 
touching indeed. She would seize the hands of the 
children and stroke them fondly, but at the sight 
of Serena, she would be so stirred up that the kind- 
hearted girl, who was wont to be welcomed like a 
little angel at other bedsides, was obliged to hurry 
out of the sickroom. So she stayed mostly with 
Kllen, playing little games with her or reading to 
her. She deeply sympathized with the little patient. 


33 


34 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


who every little while burst into tears because she 
was not allowed to move. 

At midnight old Elsa passed away. No one 
but the squire was present at her deathbed. He 
held one of her hands in his, while she raised the 
other over his head as in benediction. 

The squire and his son, attired in deep mourn- 
ing, followed the remains to the grave, where they 
were interred with all the honors that could have 
been accorded a member of the noble family. 

The following day the young people were all 
gathered about the couch upon which Ellen had 
now been placed. It was a radiant winter morning. 
The hoarfrost glittered on every limb of the trees; 
across the lake the sky glowed in roseate hues, and 
the windowpanes were decorated with a whole gar- 
denful of frost- flowers. 

Serena walked over to the window, after Ellen 
had tired of hearing her read. 

“How beautiful!” she exclaimed,, looking out 
across the lake. “Ornholm is certainly a charm- 
ing place!” 

“I think so, too,” Valborg joined in as she 
approached the window. “I know, of course, that 
you’re a model of a girl, Serena, but across your 


A FATEFUL DAY 


35 


heart you are bound to admit that you envy us, 
just the least bit, you know.” 

“Valborg!” she responded with a glance of 
reproof. 

“But I am sure you’ll wish you were here, 
when you get back to the boarding school. You 
are so sincere: come now, confess!” 

Serena hesitated and blushed slightly. She 
could not truthfully say yes, and she would not 
say no. 

“So Ornholm isn’t good enough for your lady- 
ship,” exclaimed Harold, eyeing her critically. “If 
you are not satisfied with your stay here, you are 
very cordially invited not to come again, for we 
have more grateful friends to ask.” 

“How mean you are,” Ellen remarked when 
she saw Serena burst into tears. 

Harold paced back and forth with his hands 
in his pockets and whistling loudly. Finally he 
stopped at the window and looked out. 

“There’s pa and ma in the garden. How aw- 
fully sorry they look!” he reflected. 

“I suppose they are mourning old Elsa, and 
besides they may feel worried about Ellen.” 

“Do you think my case is serious, Serena?” 
asked Ellen. 


36 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


“Now they are coming this way,” said Harold 
as he left the window. 

In a moment Squire and Lady Ornshield 
entered the room. He wore a very grave look, and 
in black she looked paler than usual. They 
came over to Ellen’s couch and asked a few solicit- 
ous questions, then seated themselves by her side, 
Eady Ornshield leaning her head on her husband’s 
shoulder. 

The squire sat silently looking upward as if 
waiting for strength from above. At last he said: 

“My children, I have something to tell you 
that concerns your future. — No, no, Serena, don’t 
go out, for it concerns you also. — Whatever burdens 
the Ford places upon our shoulders, it behooves us 
to bear with submission and Christian fortitude. 
The divine hand leads us through trials into more 
perfect happiness.” 

He stopped for a moment’s meditation, then 
went on: 

“Who do you think old Elsa really was?” 

No one knew. 

“Your grandmother.” 

“Your mother?” quizzed Harold. 

The squire assured him and continued: 

“All my life I have borne a false name. It 


A FATEFUI. DAY 


37 


happened without my knowledge, but the w’orld 
shall not brand me as a defrauder, for now that I 
have learnt the truth I shall at once discard the 
name and title of which I am not the rightful 
bearer. Old Klsa’s husband and my father was the 
gardener of the Ornholm estate, and his name was 
Eindahl.” 

The children could not have been more shocked 
by a clap of thunder right over their heads. Tady 
Ornshield wept in silence as^ the squire proceeded: 

‘T will tell you the whole story. My supposed 
parents. Colonel Ornshield and his wife, were long 
childless. At last a son was born to them, and Elsa 
became his nurse. Before I was born, she had lost 
her husband, my father, through death, and being 
permitted to take her own child with her, she made 
her home at Ornholm. Shortly after the birth of 
their son, the colonel and his wife were called away 
on a visit to the father of the latter, who had been 
taken sick while abroad. Elsa could be fully de- 
pended upon, but one day a young and careless 
maid, in picking up the child from the cradle, 
dropped it. The child struck upon its head and 
died instantly. Then the tempter (so she put it) 
persuaded Elsa to claim the dead child as her own. 
Thereby she would spare the parents much sorrow 


38 


the: fortunes of life 


and at the same time give her own son a bright 
and prosperous future. ' At the time of the accident 
only Elsa and the young maid were in the house. 
The latter was easily induced to keep the secret, 
and the dead child was buried as that of the gar- 
dener’s widow. The two children looked very much 
alike, and as the Ornshields remained away the 
better part of a year, they w^ere unable on their 
return to detect the substitution, and so I grew up 
as the rightful heir to the estate.” 

The squire again lapsed into deep thought, be- 
fore continuing his story: 

“The secret was never revealed by Elsa until 
after the recent fire. The fright on the awful night 
of the fire and the feeling that death w^as staring 
her in the face combined to give her conscience 
a violent shock. Her agony was terrible to see, and 
yet she struggled with herself to the last to keep her 
secret from me. However, she confessed to the 
pastor, but under the pledge of secrecy. But when 
her mind was wandering, she dropped w^ords that led 
me to infer the facts. I then questioned the Rev- 
erend Mr. Elmberg, and putting him on his honor 
to reveal the whole truth, he could not very well 
refuse to .speak. I next wrote to Elsa’s companion, 
the nurse maid, who still lives. The tw^o stories 


A FATKFUI. DAY 


39 


corresponded closely, and now there is no further 
doubt that my name is Thorsten Dindahl.” 

“Oh, papa, how sad!” Harold exclaimed in 
regret, adding: “How about Ornholm?” 

“It belongs to my supposed cousin, Baron 
Canute Ornshield, and in the second place to Sere- 
na, his only child.” 

To Serena, then, the girl whom the children 
had treated with so great disdain, belonged this 
whole paradise, whence they were now about to be 
driven out., It was, indeed, a hard blow. What 
would she do now? Take revenge, of course, or 
put on an air of triumph, at least. 

Serena, who had been sitting on a low stool 
near Ellen’s couch, kepped up and asked humbly: 

“Yes, but you, my dear uncle and aunt — can’t 
you stay here just the same? Without you it will 
be a dreary place, and I really don’t believe,” her 
voice quavered, “that papa would like it, if you 
should leave.” 

“Thank you, dear little girl,” said the squire, 
stroking her locks gently, “but Ornholm belongs 
to your father, and I presume he will want to man- 
age it himself.” 

Serena blushed, for she had an inner conscious- 
ness that her father was a hardhearted and covet- 


40 


THK FORTUNES OF FIFE 


ous man, who never balked at anything that would 
be to his own advantage. 

“No, my children,” he concluded, “we must 
now drain the cup that God has given us to drink. 
It is a bitter one, but still there may be honey at 
the bottom of it. For my part, I fear nothing. I 
have both strength and will to work, but it grieves 
me, my dear wife, to plunge you from wealth into 
poverty.” 

“Poverty!” she reiterated. “So long as I have 
your love and kind support, I am the richest woman 
in this world. My dear Thorsten, in our days of 
prosperity I was not all that I ought to have been, 
either to you or the children. All too often I 
yielded to my weakness and probably sometimes 
left you alone when there 'was no real need of it. 
Now, with the help of God, things will be quite 
different. In our adversity we will be a greater 
comfort to one another than ever before, and that,” 
her voice grew warm and tender as she spoke the 
words, “that will be the honey in the bottom of 
the bitter cup.” 

“Never have I felt so rich as at this moment,” 
said the squire, pressing his wife to his bosom. 

“Children,” and the parents looked sadly at 
them, “have you nothing to say to us?” 



Kliii reading for the children, 






A FATKFUI. DAY 


41 


They were dumbfounded by the shock, but 
when their surprise gave way to tears, they fell 
sobbing into their parents’ arms. 

“The worst is now said,” whispered the father. 
“It remains for us to act. We will leave you to 
yourselves for a few moments; then we will talk it 
over further.” 

When the parents had left the room, Harold 
asked Valborg to come with him into the garden. 
The air in the house had suddenly grown so op- 
pressive he could scarcely breathe. 

They strolled back and forth along the walks 
for a long while in silence. The snow creaked 
under their feet, the rime kept dropping from limbs 
and twigs, but so deeply were the two sunk in 
meditation that they neither saw nor heard any- 
thing. 

The sudden shift from light to darkness had 
blinded them for the time being, and their minds 
were groping about, but the change also set them 
to thinking more seriously than was their custom, 
for the problems of life now pressed for a solution. 

“To give up the name of Ornshield and all 
that it stands for!” reflected Harold, who was the 
first to break the silence. 

“Harold,” said Valborg with trepidation, “do 


42 


THE FORTUNES OF EIFE 


you think we were as happy as we ought to have 
been? Now that all is lost, I blame myself for not 
having appreciated what was once ours to enjoy. 
Serena certainly deserves her fortune more than we 
did ours. We have been unjust to her, I feel it 
now, still she was always patient and kind, and 
even now she is not proud. I like her for that.” 

“Now I see that old Elsa, knowing Serena was 
the rightful heir, was bitter against her and set us 
against her too. I’d like to ask Serena’s pardon, 
but I am so ashamed.— You’re getting cold, Val- 
borg.” 

Meanwhile, Serena was sitting beside Ellen, 
who wept and complained. To her words of com- 
fort Ellen responded between sobs: 

“It’s well enough for you to talk like that, 
after gaining all that we have lost, but to me things 
look quite different.” 

“Ellen, darling,” she kissed her tenderly, “I 
was not sorry before, although things were not 
always very pleasant.” 

“No, indeed not,” Ellen frankly admitted, “but 
pray, tell me how you could always be so cheerful 
and kind. I never could feel so happy as you 
always are, but now, how could I be anything but 
downhearted. I may become a cripple for life.” 


A FATEFUL DAY 


43 


At the last words the tears coursed down her 
cheeks. 

“Didn’t your mamma ever read to you or tell 
you about the Lord Jesus? My mamma read to me 
so much, and when she died I got her Bible, where 
so many passages were underscored. I committed 
some of them to memory. Let me read a few of 
them to you. In one place Jesus says: ‘Take my 
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek 
and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls.’ And in another place: ‘These things I have 
spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. 
In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of 
good cheer; I have overcome the world.’ ” 

“Yes; mamma has read those words to me, but 
I never before thought them so beautiful.’’ 

“My mamma,” Serena went on, “had written 
on a piece of paper in her Bible — wait till I bring 
the book. These are the words: ‘Just as the seed 
most readily takes root in soil that has been plowed 
and harrowed, so the word of God will more quickly 
spring up and bear fruit in a heart prepared for it 
by trials and sorrows; therefore tribulations are 
imposed, and if they serve that purpose they are 
not a punishment but a blessing.” 

Serena carefully folded the paper and put it 


44 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


back between the leaves of the Bible, while tears 
glistened in the eyes of the two girls. At last 
Serena wiped her eyes and said: “Let us pray 
together for help from God.” 

They folded their hands and Serena prayed 
-with as much candor and trust as if her heavenly 
Father had stood before her in person. 

Just as they had finished their prayer, Harold 
and Valborg entered the room. 

“Serena,” Harold spoke up, “you may think 
it’s all put on, because you are rich and I am poor, 
but I’ve got to come out with it: I have treated 
you shamefully, can you forgive me?” 

“Thank you, Harold, this is very noble of 
you, and I forgive you gladly. Of course, you 
have made me feel very sad at times, but now 
that it’s all changed, we shall all be the best of 
friends.” 

They all agreed, and wdien Mr. and Mrs. Eiu- 
dahl returned home they were pleasantly surprised 
at the happiness and good will that was reflected 
in the faces of the children and all the more grati- 
fied to learn the cause. 

A feeling of joy and peace came over the 
family circle, such as had seldom reigned in that 
household. When the darkness of the winter night 


A FATEFUI. DAY 


45 


fell, there was light and warmth in their hearts, 
and as the stars above glimmered through the 
frosted window-panes, they whispered to each other 
of a star brighter than all the lights of the firma- 
ment — the star of loving-kindness in sorrow’s dismal 
night. 


VII. 


THE DEPARTURE. 

o® PRING had come: freed from their icy fetters, 
the brooks danced gleefully down their 
^ pebbly way, and the birch-trees were chang- 
ing from brown to palest green. On the hillsides 
the spring flowers were taking the place of the 
snowdrifts, and the broad leaves of the water-lily 
were unfolding on the surface of the lake. Thou- 
sands of dragon-flies hovered about on transparent 
wings in the warm sun, in short, everywhere 
spring was hailed wdth the flutter of wings, the 
song of birds and the sweet incense of early flowers. 
Nature had awakened to new life; all things were 
inspired with the joy of living — all but the Lindahl 
family, the former Ornshields, who were in grief. 
This spring they were to leave the dear old Orn- 
holm estate. Harold and Valborg went from one 
46 


THE DEPARTURE 


47 


cherished spot to another. At each one, fond 
memories whispered to them of past pleasures, while 
remorse reminded them that they had not fully 
appreciated life’s abundant blessings. The sober 
pine-woods preached to them a sermon on penitence, 
as they stood on the very spot where the last 
Christmas trees had been cut. Recalling the un- 
pleasant memories of that ominous day, they felt 
deeply mortified and wished it all undone. 

Ellen was unable to take part in these farewell 
visits. She was still confined to her couch, with 
but slight hope of full recovery. To her fond 
mother, who bore with fortitude her grief at all 
the other reverses she had suffered, this was the 
severest trial. 

Canute Ornshield, the new owner of Ornholm, 
when notified of his good fortune, had requested 
the Eindahls to remain until spring, as business 
abroad prevented his taking possession at once. 
Now he had returned and Serena had been requested 
to meet him in Gothenburg, whence they intended 
to make their formal entry at Ornholm. The Ein- 
dahls, who had been greatly humiliated by harsh 
treatment from the new owner, desired to leave 
before that, but found it hard to sever the ties 


48 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


that bound them to the old estate, where they had 
become so firmly rooted. 

The day set for the departure had now come. 
Bravely suppressing his own feelings, Mr. Lindahl 
sought to calm his wife, who was overcome with 
sorrow, as she passed down the flight of stairs, 
leaning on her husband’s arm. 

In the spacious anteroom they met the people 
of the manor, gathered to bid their highly respected 
master and his family a last farewell. Here all gave 
their feelings full sway, and tears flowed freely 
from all eyes. 

The children had picked little bouquets of wild 
flowers which they handed to Ellen and Valborg; 
the women had brought jars of honey and home- 
made cheeses, and several of the men tendered as 
parting gifts braces of fowl and other game. 

There was no end of courtesies and handshak- 
ing and weeping and all the agonies of parting. 

“We’ll never get such another master, with 
such a kind family. — There will be other times 
coming for us now. — We’ll have a hard boss to 
serve, instead of a kind master. — Things will never 
be like they were.” Such were the expressions 
heard on every hand. 

At last Mr. Lindahl mastered his feelings 


THK departure 


49 


sufficiently to be able to speak. He stood a head 
higher than the tallest man present, and when he 
began to speak a dead silence fell over the buzzing 
crowd. 

“Farewell, dear friends, and let me thank you 
from my heart for all your kindnesses. I hope you 
will treat your new master as you have me. Be 
faithful in your work, give him your full confidence: 
if you do, I am sure things will go well, and may 
the blessing of the Eord Almighty rest over you 
all. Farewell!” 

Mrs. Eindahl was only able to say: “Farewell, 
dearest friends, thank you, one and all. God bless 
you.” 

She was assisted into the carriage, where Ellen 
already sat, bolstered up with pillows. Mr. Eiudahl 
and Valborg took the back seat and Harold quickly 
mounted the driver’s seat, swung his hat and bowed 
a graceful goodbye. 

“God be with us all,” said Mr. Eindahl in a 
clear voice and ordered the driver to start. 

As the carriage rolled away, the people wished 
them all godspeed and joined in three hearty cheers. 

All along the road people gathered to bid them 
goodbye. At the last gate on the extensive estate 


50 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


the workmen formed in line on either side of the 
road as the carriage passed. 

The young folks answered the people’s greet- 
ings in more kindly tone then had been their custom, 
and their tears flowed copiously, but overhead 
sang the verdant breezes, and before them the 
tears of youth quickly dried. 



VIIL 

THE NEW HOME. 

Jj^R. I^INDAHIy accepted a position as manager 
of Seawich, a large estate on the west coast 
^ of Sweden. It had an isolated location, 
and this the new occupants deemed an advantage 
under the circumstances. The owner, Baron Wei- 
denfelt, spent most of his time in Italy and Switzer- 
land or on some of his other estates in Sweden, 
leaving the manager the greatest freedom. 

At the time Mr. Lindahl took charge, the Sea- 
wich estate was badly run down through misman- 
agement, but in a few years he worked it up to a 
point where it yielded a revenue never dreamed of 
by the proprietor. 

Notwithstanding his strenuous labors, Mr. Lin- 
dahl now found more time to devote to his family. 

51 


52 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


The children’s studies, formerly directed by 
tutors and governesses, were now pursued under 
the eye of the father himself, who put them on 
their honor and taught them to work without 
constant aid. 

It took some time for them to get accustomed 
to the new order of things. The environments 
were new, and there was a vast difference between 
the great Ornholm mansion and the dilapidated 
little old house set aside for the manager at Seawich. 

Eittle Ellen, babied and spoiled as she was, 
and used to having her own way, did not thrive 
in the new surroundings. Her pains would not 
quite yield to the doctor’s treatment. She was still 
confined to her bed or couch, and the pretty little 
face was constantly growing paler and more 
pinched with suffering. The time grew very tedious 
for the short patience of the child. 

But the father succeeded in giving even to her 
mind new and wholesome food for thought. By 
degrees and almost imperceptibly her stock of 
knowledge grew. This was accomplished by suit- 
able reading, which in her lonely moments turned 
her mind to serious things. The letters from Serena 
also were a means to this end. Both the gprls 
studied the Bible diligently and the good book thus 


THK NEW HOME 


53 


became Ellen’s greatest source of comfort. She 
there learnt to know the heavenly Father in whom 
little Serena put her trust. There she found in 
Christ Jesus her best friend, and when her burdens 
grew too heavy, she laid them, like the pilgrim of 
yore, at the foot of the Cross. 

In her fight against her own selfishness she 
was greatly aided by her mother, and often, when 
her faith wavered and hope seemed lost, Serena’s 
letter would come at the very moment of distress 
and give her new courage. 

Now and then her friend would send a little 
gift of friendship to cheer her, but this was not 
often, for that Serena had to do in secret. Captain 
Ornshield was a proud and hardhearted man, who 
did not permit his daughter to keep up intimate 
relations with the Eiudahls. At last he went so far 
as to forbid her to exchange letters with any mem- 
ber of the family. 

Prevented by sickness from doing the least 
bodily labor, Ellen considered herself a burden to 
the family and despaired of ever being able to be 
of any use; but even for the invalid the Eord pro- 
vided work that she could do. 

She had just completed her fifteenth year when 
on a Sunday afternoon a couple of young children 


54 


THE FORl'UNKS OF EIFK 


stopped a little way from where she was reclining 
on her couch, which had been placed in the shadow 
of a blooming lindentree on the lawn. Her Bible, 
in which she had just been reading the story of 
Joseph, in a moment of contemplation slid out of 
her hand and fell to the ground, and one of the 
children hastened to pick it up for her. 

She asked them to sit down on the grass beside 
her, so she might talk to them, and offered to tell 
them a story. As she related the story she had 
just read, their eyes sparkled with delight, and 
when they left she promised them that they might 
come back the next Sunday and bring with them 
some of their playmates. 

This was how her Sunday school was started. 
All went well; the Bible studies grew ever more in- 
teresting, and when the children sat in a circle 
around her couch, where she reclined, pale and 
slender, a lily broken while in the bud, looking 
wistfully into her soulful eyes and listening to the 
tender words that flowed from her lips, then they 
received much light on the things pertaining to the 
kingdom of God, which the memorizing of their 
lessons in the catechism never could have imparted. 

While Ellen’s knowledge of the Bible grew, she 
was led to take up other subjects, and having be- 


NEW HOME 


55 


come very much attached to her little pupils, she 
invited them to come on week days too. 

Her instruction was clear and vivid. She knew 
how to awaken in the minds of the pupils a thirst 
for knowledge, and soon her school gained such a 
reputation that the well-to-do people as well as the 
poor asked to have their children accepted. 

Ellen was greatly pleased that, in spite of her 
weakness, she could be useful to others and even 
earn a little money. Her earning power pleased 
her all the more as she, the frailest of all the chil- 
dren, was the first to contribute toward the main- 
tenance of the household. She no longer gave way 
to vain regrets for what she had lost. When she 
saw the bright faces of all the happy little ones 
about her, she thankfully admitted that Ellen Ein- 
dahl led a fuller and more cheerful life than Ellen 
Ornshield ever dreamt of. 

Valborg, on the other hand, was unable to 
reconcile herself to the new conditions. She was to 
help her mother with the housework, and to arouse 
her ambition her duties were closely defined, but 
she had neither ambition nor practical ability for 
such work, and so her duties were mostly performed 
by her mother or else left undone. 

She was pained to see how her mother wore 


56 


THE FORTUNES OF EIFE 


herself out, yet, rather than help her, she would 
put on her hat and stroll aimlessly about. Oft in 
the still summer evening she would sit alone some- 
where on a mossy stone and watch some golden 
cloud sail afar on the blue ocean of the sky. In 
the daytime she would go down to the seashore and 
enjoy the play of light and shadow on the waves 
and rocks, sometimes reproducing the scene in her 
sketchbook with surprising deftness. She sometimes 
sketched persons that impressed her artistic sense, 
and the simple fisher folk were not a little surprised 
when they found their weatherbeaten faces in her 
book. 

These same fishermen were Harold’s boon com- 
panions. His natural pride rebelled at the changed 
conditions of the family. Eife at Seawich was un- 
bearably tedious to him and he longed to get away; 
but he was as yet unable to choose his occupation, 
and his father deemed him too young to start out 
into the world alone, so he continued bis studies 
at home under the guidance of his father and of a 
young theologian who was adjunct pastor of the 
parish. 

His leisure hours he spent among the fisher- 
men. He helped the old men bind and repair their 
nets, launched forth with them no matter how the 
breakers roared, and soon had the reputation of 
being the bravest lad on the coast. 





-?f, V'W’a4>A' 


“Taste, feeling, and quite good talent,” 


m 







THE STORM 

f OOK to the west! Sky all afire, and such 
clouds! Reckon we’ll have a real old- 
fashioned nor’ wester,” said an old fisherman 
as he pointed to the glowing sunset. 

And he was right. That night the people liv- 
ing along the shore were awakened by the thunder 
of gigantic waves dashing against the cliffs. The 
storm raged furiously throughout the pitch black 
night, and when day broke the hurricane was still 
unabated. 

Among the rocks the enormous waves were 
dashed to spray and the breakers had a cold me- 
tallic sheen. To the disinterested onlooker who 
viewed the scene from some quiet point of vantage, 
it was one of majestic grandeur, but not so to the 
fishermen who stood helpless on shore seeing vessel 
57 


58 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


after vessel driven on the rocks, and to the weep- 
ing wives whose husbands and sons were still at 
sea it was a scene of indescribable horror. Some 
turned to God in prayer for deliverance; others 
abandoned themselves to thoughts of impending dis- 
aster. 

While unable to go to the rescue of the ship- 
wrecked, yet the men on shore had all they could do 
to save their boats and fishing tackle, which the 
storm threatened to carry off. Harold Lindahl hur- 
ried down to the shore to assist in the work of 
rescue. 

Suddenly he thought he heard shots fired by a 
ship in distress and called the men’s attention to 
the sounds. They explained that it was nothing 
but the impact of waves beating on the cliffs or 
possibly claps of distant thunder. 

At last Gunnarson, an old fisherman, took his 
spyglass and mounted a high rock, followed by 
Harold. 

He looked out over the turbulent sea, and then 
handed the glass to the boy. 

They saw what looked like a wreck tossed on 
the angry waves and being rapidly driven in. On 
Black Rock yonder they could see dark objects 
moving about. 


"THH SI^ORM 


59 


“lyook, Gunnarson!” said Harold. 

“There’s people out there, sure enough,” the 
old man muttered under his breath, as he hurried 
down from the lookout. He ran back to the cot- 
tage for his oil-skins and then down to the shore, 
where a boat was put into the water with great dif- 
ficulty, and he got into it. 

“Are you mad, Gunnarson? What are you 
going to do?” the bystanders shouted. 

Before the boat was got afloat Harold also 
jumped into it. 

The people warned him not to go. If Gunnar- 
son must go, they felt sure his wife would be a 
widow before night, but they thought it useless for 
the young man to risk his life. These words were 
lost in the roar of the breakers and soon the little 
craft was tossing violently in the choppy sea. 

Gunnarson took the rudder, while Harold had 
all he could do to manage the sail. After tossing 
about without making any headway, they finally 
got a few tacks that brought them near the rock. 
Their every movement was nervously watched by 
the unfortunates who stood huddled there. Would 
the boat ever reach them? Kvery wave threatened 
to sweep one or more persons into the deep, and 


6o 


THK FORTUNES OF FIFE 


unless the craft could reach the mooring, the dura- 
tion of their lives might be counted by minutes. 

“There’s an iron ring somewhere on the east 
side of the rock. See that you get hold of that,” 
Gunnarson shouted to Harold as he steered up 
alongside the cliff. But the boat was lifted up and 
hurled back by the seas time and again. Harold 
stood with grappling-hook in hand, barely able to 
keep on his feet. The men above were tensely 
watching his efforts to reach the ring. They uttered 
not a word, as if in fear that even the faintest 
sound might interfere with the efforts to save them. 

At last Harold caught the iron ring. The boat 
was made fast and the shipwrecked crew, some of 
them badly injured, clambered down. The wind 
being directly shoreward, the boat was swiftly driven 
in, and in a few minutes the wrecked and their 
rescuers were warmly welcomed in the fishermen’s 
camp. 

The captain of the wrecked vessel, a thickset, 
weatherbeaten little man, seized the hands of Gun- 
narson and Harold and pressed them cordially while 
he spoke in English a few heartfelt w^ords of grati- 
tude. All the others of the crew did likewise. 

The captain had been the last to leave the 
ship, a British vessel bound for the Baltic with a 


THE STORM 


6i 


cargo of coal. In endeavoring to get his men in 
temporary safety on the rock, he had been badly 
injured, and Harold at once sent for a conveyance, 
in which he was driven to the Eindahl home, while 
the crew were quartered in the fishermen’s cottages. 

The Eindahls knew nothing of the peril Harold 
had passed through nor of the brave feat performed 
by him until Captain Bryant began to tell the story 
of the shipwreck and the rescue, tirelessly prais- 
ing the heroism of the young man. 

The doctor came and dressed the captain’s 
wounds and bandaged his left arm — fortunately the 
right was uninjured. The physician had hardly 
left before the captain sat down and wrote his report 
of the wreck and mailed it to Newcastle. In a 
letter to the company he told of the two brave 
Swedes who risked their own lives to save the ship- 
wrecked crew. 

The captain was given a pleasant little room, 
where he received kind attendance from the mem- 
bers of the family. The young folks now made 
good use of their knowledge of English, acquired 
from their former tutoress, for the captain was a 
pleasant and talkative man. 

He had followed the sea for thirty-two years. 
He had been becalmed under the glowing sun of 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


62 . 


the equator, where the heat-waves made the still 
w’aters seem like great rolling billows at the sky- 
line, and where in the midst of the watery desert 
the crew were dying of thirst. He had known the 
wrath of a storm in the Arctic sea, where the ship 
was ground between blocks of solid ice and the stars 
shone day and night over the snow-covered ice- 
floes. 

Ellen listened intently to his vivid descriptions 
of scenes of nature which she never would witness. 
She caught them in the camera of her memory and 
used them to good purpose in her lessons in geog- 
raphy. 

Valborg also profited by the captain’s narra- 
tives. They inspired her, and she fixed some of 
his most thrilling adventures on her canvas. 
Whether among the icebergs of the north or in 
the laurel groves of the tropics, the little cap- 
tain, with his bronzed face and his short, crooked 
legs, cut a highly picturesque figure. 

Harold was as inseparable from Captain Bryant 
as if they had been chained together, and the Eng- 
lishman took a deep interest in the sturdy Swedish 
lad who had helped to save his life. The boy list- 
ened with rapt attention to the stories of the old 
seafarer, following him on imaginary voyages along 


THE STORM 


63 


the coral shores of the Bermudas, where the ship 
plowed the phosphorescent waves or placid waters 
covered with varicolored acquatic plants and the 
scent of aromatic herbs was wafted on the breezes 
far out to sea; and again he would accompany him 
to the polar regions, where the icebergs towered 
skyward and glistened like huge opals in the slant- 
ing rays of the arctic sun. He pictured to the boy 
the long northern night lit up by the Aurora Bore- 
alis, and hardy explorers dressed in shaggy skins, 
forging onward over the frozen wastes. The old 
man dwelt with predilection on such adventures, 
for he had himself taken part in one of the numer- 
ous expeditions sent out from England in search of 
' Sir John Franklin and his companions. 

“You ought to have known our first lieutenant, 
Robert M’Clure,” he remarked. “There was a man 
for you; and if ever he is put at the head of an 
arctic expedition, I shall go with him, old as I am, 
for if anybody ever will find the Northwest Passage, 
he’s the man to do it.” 

“The Northwest Passage?” Harold inquired; 
“what do you mean by that?” 

The captain told him to fetch the globe, and 
then, cigar in hand, he described to him how men 
had in vain for three hundred years past tried to sail 


64 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


through from Bering sea to BafiSn’s Bay, or the 
reverse. 

Just then he was interrupted by the postman, 
who handed him a fat envelope and a small parcel. 

The parcel was found to contain a purse filled 
with gold addressed to Nils Gunnarson, the fisher- 
man, and accompanied by a letter of gratitude from 
the company which owned the ship ‘Water Lily’, 
the captain and crew of which the old fisherman 
had risked his life to save. 

“Look,” said Captain Bryant, “here’s a letter 
for Harold Liudahl, Esq. It’s from the owners of 
the ship — I should say, the rotten old tub, for such 
it was. And here you are,” he added, handing 
Harold a red leather box containing a valuable gold 
watch and chain, just such a one as he had often 
wished for. 

In the letter Reid and Co. requested that Mr. 
Lindahl carry the time-piece as a memento of the 
day when he so heroically aided in the rescue of 
many lives, including that of the highly respected 
Mr. Bryant. In the same letter Harold was offered 
a place either in the offices of the company in New- 
castle or on board one of its vessels plying between 
the principal seaports of the world. 

Overjoyed by his great good fortune, Harold 


THK STORM 


65 


rushed into the sittingroom, where the rest of the 
family were gathered, and displayed his precious 
gift. He then read the letter aloud and declared 
that he had already made up his mind to go to sea. 

With tears in her eyes his mother mildly up- 
braided him for being so glad of a chance to leave 
his home. 

“I, for one, don’t blame you,” said his father. 
“It will do you good to get out in the world, and, 
besides, the opportunity is such that we all ought 
to congratulate you as well as ourselves.” 

He warmly pressed his son’s hand, and the 
handsome gift was greatly admired by all. 



X. 


LEAVING HOME 

^^7\<>FTKR many stormy days calm weather set 
in. The waves lapped almost inaudibly 
against the shore. Through the clear water 
every shell and pebble showed, and the crabs could 
be seen moving lazily about on the sandy bottom. 
The fresh smell of seaweed blew landward, and 
when the wind turned, the smell of dried fish per- 
vaded the place. For the walls of every hut in the 
hamlet and all the fences surrounding the little 
garden plots were hung with the products of the sea. 

Most of the boats lay moored, but with sails 
spread to the sun to dry after a morning shower. 

Old Gunnarson sat at the door of his cottage 
repairing his nets. His wife had carried her spin- 
ning wheel out in the open air. Fishermen stood 
around in groups talking and smoking their pipes. 

66 


I.KAVING HOMK 


67 


All was peace and quiet about the little fisher 
village. 

Suddenly voices were heard in the distance, and 
forth among the rocks marched a little company 
dressed in holiday garb. Captain Bryant and Mr. 
lyindahl led the procession, next came Harold and 
the British sailors, and last, the laborers of the 
Seawich estate who had joined the party at various 
points along the way. 

The procession headed straight for old Gunnar- 
son, and Mr. Tindahl, as spokesman, extended to 
him the thanks of the English shipowners for his 
heroic deed and handed him the purse filled with 
gold coin. 

Thus taken aback, the old fisherman responded: 

“I only did my duty: am I to be paid for that? 
I thank you, gentlemen, just the same.” He made 
a deep bow and added: “This gives me and my 
wife about all we will need as long as we live.” 

The other fishermen crowded around him to 
look at the handsomely worked purse, through the 
silken meshes of which the bright coins gleamed. 
Every one felt that his good fortune was well de- 
served, and the comrades of the stout-hearted old 
fisherman now regretted that they did not also start 


68 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


out on a life-saving mission on that fatal day, when 
so many lives were in peril. 

“I’ll soon come to bid you goodbye, Gunnar- 
son,” said Harold as they stood ready to go. “I 
am going along with Captain Bryant.” 

“Are you?” the old man said thoughtfully, 
then went on in a more cheerful tone: “Well, 
young man, you have a brave heart and with the 
help of God you will come through all right, but 
they’ll give you a hard rub at first. Just now the 
sea lies a-purring like a contented kitten, but you 
just wait till she growls and sputters and foams at 
the mouth like a raging tiger.” 

“We have both tried that too, but I long to 
go to sea just the same.” 

“Well, then, go, and God be with you.” 

Poor boy! He had never felt at home in the 
new place and the changed conditions. Now he 
would be thrown into new environments, and, what 
pleased him most, get to mingle with people who 
knew nothing of his past. For that was his tender 
spot. Like all who have little knowledge of men 
and things, he imagined that people busied them- 
selves thinking of him and that they looked down 
upon him and slighted him on account of the mis- 
fortunes of the family. 


LEAVING HOME 


69 


Finally the day set for his departure came. 
However hopefully Harold had looked forward to 
it, he now found it hard to separate from the loved 
ones at home. He struggled vainly to keep back 
the tears, when he saw his mother busily engaged 
in putting all his things in order and packing them 
carefully in his trunk. He thought of what a care- 
free old age she might have enjoyed, yet during 
the time they lived at Seawich he had never heard 
her utter a w^ord of complaint. She bowed humbly 
to the will of God and, forgetful of self, devoted 
all her energy to the care of her husband and the 
children. 

In the hour of parting Harold clasped his mother 
in his arms, exclaiming: 

“O that I might become a worthy son of such 
excellent parents!” 

He kissed her tenderly and whispered in her 
ear a hope that with the help of God he would be 
able to conquer and subdue the pride which had 
been a constant source of grief to her. 

He turned to his sister: 

“Dear, sweet little Ellen, may God bless you. 
He has made such a kind little angel of you. May 
it please him to make you well.” 

He prayed Valborg not to forget her naughty 


70 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


brother. She replied by handing him a portfolio, 
on one side of which she had drawn a view of Sea- 
wich and on the other one of Ornholm. 

“Thank you,” said he, his face clouding, “this 
will bring up fond but painful memories.” 

Ellen gave him a pocketbook on which was 
embroidered a lily supported by a cross — an emblem 
of her own self. 

“The carriage is waiting,” Mr. Lindahl an- 
nounced, and clasping his son to his bosom said 
tenderly: “may the Lord be with you!” 

“Goodbye, captain,” he added, “and take good 
care of my boy.” The two men shook hands with 
a fervid grip. 

One more kiss on his mother’s cheek, one 
more wave of the hand to Ellen at the window, a 
cheerful, “Goodbye, papa!” and Harold was gone. 

He and Captain Bryant went to Gothenburg 
and took passage for the British port, where the 
captain was to take charge of his new vessel. 

So Harold went out into the world to meet 
fortunes still unknown. His mother and sisters 
looked with tearful eyes down the road long after 
his waving white handkerchief had disappeared from 
view. And when Mrs. Lindahl returned to her 
household duties, she asked herself, would she ever 
see her son again? 



XL 


THE BASKETMAKER. 


4g>- 

^l^TTAI/BORG missed her brother very much, for 
in the days of their reverses they had be- 


come greatly attached to one another. They 
had taken long walks together among the hills and 
valleys, all the while engaged in confidential talks, 
and as she was not subject* to sea-sickness she had 
often accompanied him out to sea. 

Now she was alone. KHen was unable to go 
with her, and, in any event, their interests were so 
very different. KHen’s attention was devoted wholly 
to her pupils, and her reading had another trend 
than that of Valborg. Besides, KHen was now con- 
tent with her lot in life, while Valborg, who lived 
in the world of fancy, hungered for a certain some- 

.71 


72 


THE FORTUNES OF RIFE 


thing, she knew not what, and her secret ambition 
made her a day-dreamer and a recluse. 

Ellen far from sympathized with her ambitious 
notions, in fact, she stamped her conduct as a sin- 
ful waste of time and energy. 

One fine, sunny afternoon Valborg started out 
on her customary walk, in a direction she had sel- 
dom taken. She roamed the idyllic countryside for 
miles and miles, and, though all alone, never feared 
any harm. 

She followed a road leading along some ridges 
covered with a sparce growth of verdure, until she 
came to a narrow pass, with almost perpendicular 
cliffs on both sides. A mesh of vines and wood- 
bines and blackberry brambles made it almost im- 
passable, but Valborg, charmed with the view of 
the picturesque cliffs, forced her way through at 
the risk of tearing her clothes to tatters, in order 
to study them from the other side. 

Having cleared the pass, she found the land- 
scape quite changed. Tall trees of various kinds 
cast dense shadows across the greensward, and 
through the foliage could be seen the glittering blue 
expanse of water, the goal of a crystal stream cours- 
ing swiftly down the slope. Under the cliffs stood a 
little red cottage. Valborg followed the path that 


THE BASKEI^MAKHR 


73 


led up to the cottage, thinking to inquire for the 
shortest way back to Seawich. 

She had not gone far when she noticed an old 
man under a spreading oaktree, engaged in making 
wicker baskets. 

His hair and beard were white, the latter flow- 
ing down over a scarlet-colored vest. He made a 
striking picture in a magnificent setting, and Val- 
‘borg instinctively brought out her sketchbook. She 
found time only for a mere outline, for the sun 
was low, and the cool evening breezes from the sea 
reminded her she was far from home. Closing the 
book she went straight over to the old man. 

“Seawich? That’s in this direction,” he said, 
pointing with his cane. “You follow that path to 
the crossroads, then turn to the right and you will 
have no trouble to find your way.” 

There was something about the old man’s eyes, 
voice and movements that made the girl turn 
pale. 

“What’s the matter, miss?” 

Just then a big, black dog came running down 
the hillside. He noticed the stranger at once and, 
raising his ears, rushed at her, barking viciously. 

“Call him off, he’ll bite me!” she screamed in 


74 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


alarm. She was helpless with fright and remained 
motionless, calling loudly for help. 

“Stop, Fido! Don’t you dare! Come here, 
Fido, lie down!’’ the old man commanded. “There, 
that’s a good dog.” 

The brute slunk over to his master’s side, 
meanwhile casting furtive glances at Valborg, 
and growled angrily. He would have rushed upon 
the intruder at any moment, but the old man 
gripped him by the collar and held him back by 
main force. The girl’s identity now dawned upon 
the old basketmaker. 

“Now I understand,” said he. “I thought I 
recognized your voice, and Fido is never mistaken. 
You are one of the 5^oungsters who insulted the 
blind old man, aren’t you?” 

Valborg broke into tears, and, still faint with 
fright, she sank down on the green. 

“If you only knew,” said she, “how bitterly 
we regretted what we then did, and what ill luck 
we have had ever after! We at once looked for 
you everywhere, for we were anxious to repair the 
injury done, but we were unable to find j^ou. And 
then came the curse you called down upon us, so 
now we know what misfortune means, and I pray 
you sincerely to forgive us.” 


THE BASKKTMAKKR 


75 


With that she held out her hand to him. 

“My child,” said the old man feelingly, “I also 
did wrong when I asked the Lord to avenge me, 
and I have often prayed that this sin might be for- 
given; but I was at the time so embittered by re- 
verses and in such a state of despair over the loss 
of my eyesight, that I acted like a heathen. But 
now I’ve got light both outwardly and inwardly. 
Therefore, let us forgive one another, as we hope 
for forgiveness from God.” 

“I thank you most heartily. O, how glad Ellen 
will be! We have talked so often about that unlucky 
day, and everything that followed.” 

“But, my child, what has happened?” 

“I will tell you, but first please tell me how 
you fared after you left us that day?” 

“Well, for the first part of the story you’ll 
have to ask Fido. I only know that I fell into a 
ditch by the wayside and lay there feeling so faint 
I thought I’d die.” 

“That was all our fault,” Valborg admitted, 
gently stroking the old man’s hand. 

“Then,” he proceeded, “there came an angel 
sent from heaven and brought me food, just like 
Hagar was fed in the desert, and such a kind and 
gentle angel as she was.” 


76 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


“Serena,” Valborg said to herself, but loud 
enough for the old man to hear. 

“So that was her name, was it? Well, I might 
have known it couldn’t have been a real angel, for 
she left behind her a basket, and many are the 
ones I have since made just like it. I tell you, 
miss, there’s been such a demand for them that 
that one basket really held my good fortune. Well, 
I rallied and proceeded on my way to Gothenburg, 
where I underwent an operation at the eye hospital. 
Kind ladies came there to comfort the patients and 
read the Word of God to us, and taught me things 
that will do me good for time and eternity. When 
I got well, these ladies helped me to get back home 
and also started me up in the wickerwork trade, 
which I learnt when my eyesight began to give 
out.” 

Then Valborg told him what had happened at 
Ornholm. The old man showed warm sympathy 
and spoke many comforting words with reference to 
the trials and afflictions of this temporal life. They 
talked earnestly together until the sun set, when 
Valborg remembered that she had a long way home. 

“Before you leave I want you to take a look 
inside my little home and have a glass of rich, 
sweet milk,” said the old man, as she started to 


THE BASKETMAKER 


77 


go. “I have ho one to keep house for me, but 
with a cow and a pig I manage to get along. Never 
mind if it is getting a little late: I’ll see you safely 
home.” 

Valborg stooped down to pick up her things, 
which were scattered during her fright. 

“Here’s a little portfolio, which must be yours. 
And these slips of paper belong in there, I reckon.” 

“Yes, thank you.” 

“I think we’ve got them all now. — No, here’s 
another leaf.” 

He picked it up from the heap of osier- twigs. 

“What’s this I see? A picture of the old man, 
real as life. Sure, I’ve got to show this to the 
professor.” 

“The professor, who is he?” 

“It’s one of them painter artists. He lives 
here with me. He came a week ago to take salt sea 
baths, he said, but he mostly roams around the 
countryside making what he calls ‘studies’ and such. 
But he can do one thing to perfection, and that is 
make pictures of fishermen and old women. You’d 
think they were real. Now will you please to step 
inside? They’re all in there.” 

Turning to go, he saw the artist coming. 

“Oh, here we have the professor himself.” 


78 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


From among the trees emerged a gentleman 
dressed in simple and somewhat careless fashion, 
followed by a boy who carried his paint-box, a 
camp stool and a large umbrella. 

He entered the cottage a few moments later, 
ducking his head in the low doorway. The move- 
ment was followed by a more graceful bow when 
he noticed a young lady in the room, conversing 
with his host. 

“Look here, Professor,” said the old man, 
handing him Valborg’s sketch. 

“Very good; very good indeed,” the artist re- 
marked, and proceeded to turn the leaves in the 
portfolio. “Whom have you studied with?” 

“No one, sir,” said Valborg frankly. 

“There’s a splendid group . . . skillfully done 
. . . taste and genuine feeling . . . true artistic 
talent ... a little faulty in the technique, but 
that will correct itself.” 

Such were some of the words used by the artist 
about Valborg’ s humble efforts. 

Blushing at the favorable comment, Valborg 
turned modestly away and began to examine a 
number of sketches which lay scattered on the table. 
There were half-finished sketches of fishermen and 
country folk; characteristic heads drawn \vith a few 


THE BASKKTMAKER 


79 


deft strokes; fishing smacks and great vessels with 
broad, spreading sails and the great sea in all its 
moods and tones. Never had she seen anything 
more charming. Suddenly she came upon a more 
complex composition, representing a country wed- 
ding on the coast. 

The artist watched her. “That interests you?” 
he asked. 

“Yes, sir; it brings up recollections. We had 
that picture hanging in our drawingroom at Orn- 
holm,” she said. 

“Are you a Miss Ornshield, then?” he inquired 
in a surprised tone. 

“I was,” she responded softly, her cheeks red- 
dening. 

“What? Already married?” 

The basketmaker whispered something in the 
artist’s ear, and with a respectful bow to the young 
lady he prayed her pardon for having unintention- 
ally touched a melancholy chord. 

He was a man of middle age, with long, brown 
hair and beard and blue eyes with a kindly twinkle 
in them. His manner was simple and direct, but 
suave and cordial. 

He told her how Squire Ornshield had been the 
first to take notice of him and to order pictures 


8o 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


from him. What had again brought him to this 
locality was his acquaintance with Count Weiden- 
felt, whom he met in Rome, and who requested 
him to paint a number of canvases with subjects 
from his Seawich estate. 

‘T did not know that your family lives there, 
but now it will be a great pleasure to me to revive 
my acquaintance with your father, a most estimable 
gentleman, he concluded. 

They talked further about her sketches, and 
he invited her to accompany him sometime on his 
sketching tours in the neighborhood, also offering 
to give her lessons, if she so desired. 

She knew not how to thank him for his interest 
in her work. With beaming eyes she assured him 
that in this opportunity to study painting her fond- 
est wish in life was realized. 

It was now growing dusk, and the artist po- 
litely offered to escort Valborg back to Seawich. 

While he was in his room adjusting his apparel, 
the girl bade old Andrew, the basketmaker, 
goodbye. 

“I am so thankful to you,” she said. “You 
have, indeed, returned good for evil. And isn’t it 
remarkable that my ambition should be realized 
right here in your house?” 


THE BASKKI^MAKKR 


8i 


“Do not thank me for that, my child. Thank 
the Eord only.” 

The artist was cordially received by his old 
friend and patron, whom he now met again under 
so different circumstances, and felt very much at 
home with the Eiudahls, in whose pleasant and re- 
fined home he was made to feel always welcome. 

Under his skillful guidance, Valborg made ex- 
cellent progress. Her development was not limited 
to her art; her character developed as well. She 
was like a flower growing in the shadow of a wall, 
pale and puny, which, when the wall was torn 
down, quickly grew fresh and vigorous and took on 
her full natural beauty in the benign sunlight. In 
the same way life had now turned brighter for her. 
Her future path seemed rosy, for in her artistic 
career she hoped to forge ahead to success and earn 
the means wherewith to assist her parents and 
lighten their burden of care. 

Ellen shared her joy. Now she began to know 
her sister and comprehend the reason for her languid 
inactivity in the past. She realized that each one 
is endowed with peculiar gifts and traits, and is 
required to make the most of the talents received. 
If we use our talents in the service of God, and not 


82 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


to further our own ends, He will bless our endeav- 
ors and crown them with success at last. 

Valborg was fortunate in having by her side 
such a devout and patient girl as Ellen, whose 
wholesome influence she gratefully acknowledged. 
The relations between the two sisters now became 
more intimate day by day, and even though they 
developed in different directions, yet they were drawn 
together by common sympathies. 


XII. 

SPREADING THE WINGS 

wintry nights, when the snow whirled about 
the manager’s cottage at Seawich, and Mrs. 

^ Lindahl, her household duties done, joined 
the family circle and sat down to her needlework, 
she was never so comfortable at the warm fireside 
but she would think of Harold, her only boy, won- 
dering where he was and how he fared. 

When he started for London with Captain Bry- 
ant, a new world was really opened to him, just as 
he had anticipated. When they sailed up the 
Thames River, he saw vessels from all the corners 
of the world, and around him spread the greatest 
city on earth. 

If traffic on the Thames was lively, that in the 
streets was perfectly bewildering, and the noise and 

83 


84 


THE FORTUNES OF RIFE 


bustle made his head swim. However, he was not 
now permitted to see a great deal of the city’s 
sights, for they soon started for Portsmouth, where 
the captain’s vessel was waiting for him. 

While they were in that port, where they re- 
mained for some time, Harold saw the great docks 
of the British navy, and also made a trip across to 
the Isle of Wight. 

They finally started on their voyage, from which 
they would not return for two years. The ship 
sailed from one port to another, remaining in each 
place only long enough for lading or discharging 
cargoes. The crew, therefore, had no chance to see 
anything but the spot where they happened to be 
anchored: All went well, and there were no acci- 
dents. Rife on board was monotonous, but Harold 
became such a close friend of Captain Bryant, that 
when they returned to England he hired out on 
his ship for another term. 

One winter, w^hile the vessel was docked for 
repairs at Portsmouth, Harold passed the captain’s 
examination with honor. 

After a number of successful voyages Captain 
Bryant quit the sea and settled down in the coun- 
try. Harold then hired as chief officer on another 
ship, but with her captain he did not get along 


sprkadinc the wings 


85 


well. Harold’s pride was not yet subdued, and 
when they reached England, he resigned and went 
to Eondon, undecided whether to accept a desirable 
place offered him there or make a trip home to visit 
his family. He had saved enough money so he 
could afford to bide his time, and meanwhile hoped 
to obtain some lucrative position in Sweden. 

Harold Eindahl felt very strange as he, a drop 
in the bucket, followed the current of humanity 
day after day. Each one seemed to be destined for 
somewhere, but he was not. There was a rush and 
surge and pulsation in the great city as though it 
were the heart of the world. He could hear the 
heartbeats and see the blood coursing through the 
arteries of commerce to the uttermost parts of the 
earth. 

To get away from the busy hum of the city 
for a few moments he sought a quiet spot, where 
he might catch his breath, and for that purpose 
took a position at the Wellington monument. 

From where he stood he had a view of the 
magnificent Royal Exchange, the British board of 
trade, and was able to read the inscription on the 
front of the building: 

^^The Earth is ^ekovaEs, and the fulness thereof E 

While standing there, he heard Swedish spoken. 


g6 


THH FORI'UNKS OF FIFF 


Turning around, he saw a couple of young men, 
waiting to cross the street. 

“What,” exclaimed one of them, “isn’t this 
Harold Ornshield?” 

Harold blushed and was about to repl}^ when 
the other, a young lieutenant, interrupted him, re- 
marking with scorn: 

“I shouldn’t think he’d have the face to bear 
that name now. I believe he calls himself some- 
thing like Fund or Find?” 

“My name is Findahl,” Harold bluntly informed 
them and turned to go, when the first stranger in- 
terceded: 

“By all means, my friends, as strangers in a 
strange land let us not quarrel about a name that 
no one here knows anything about. Your own 
name, Findenstam, begins the same way, and mine 
is William Ronnberg; you may remember the son 
of the high-bailiff of Ryssb3^ You were mighty 
stuck up when as boys we used to play together, 
but we can be just as good friends for all that. 
Don’t look so cross at Axel Findenstam; he doesn’t 
mean it as bad as it sounds, but shake hands, boys, 
and call it square. You fellows remind me of a 
couple of young roosters spoiling for a fight. Come 


spreading the wings 


87 


on, now, shake and be friends, and then go along 
with me home.” 

Harold could not decline the invitation of his 
jolly countryman, and so the three former playmates 
joined company. 

The kindly little woman who opened the door 
for them put on a very serious face when she saw 
Harold, and then disappeared with a shake of the 
head. 

This puzzled him as he went up the stairs 
with the other two. Ronnberg told in pleasant 
fashion how he had drifted from Ryssby to Eondon, 
where he got a situation with a large commercial 
house and explained to Harold that he had by mere 
accident met Eindenstam, who was seeing a bit of 
the world, and volunteered to show him around the 
city. 

“This is a dull old burg,” interrupted Einden- 
stam, growing familiar. Everybody is so busy they 
haven’t time to live. No, give me Paris for mine. 
There the people know how to enjoy themselves. 
I can’t get there any too quick.” 

During the evening a couple of Ronnberg’ s 
Eondon friends dropped in and they all drank heav- 
ily and played cards. 

Harold wanted to leave, but he was unable to 


88 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


get away. They compelled him to stay and take 
part in the carousal, and, being unaccustomed to 
play, he lost quite a sum of money in the game. 

His companions grew very friendly indeed. 
They saw him to his lodgings, and on taking their 
leave insisted that he come back the following night 
to “get even.” 

The next day Harold, feeling quite ill, failed 
to go to the ship-broker’s office to inquire about a 
position to which he aspired. He thought it time 
enough the following day, and did not care very 
much for the place anyhow. 

In the evening Ronnberg and Lindenstam came 
and got him. The previous night’s debauch was 
repeated, with the substitution of a game of chance 
for a test of skill at cards. Harold started playing 
indifferently and won several times, whereupon his 
luck turned against him. He lost heavily and grew 
more desperate at every play. The others urged 
him on, advising him, every time he lost, to make 
still another attempt to win back his money. But 
no, he lost every time, and at last he threw down 
his cards, grabbed his hat and rushed out. 

Reaching his lodgings, he threw himself on the 
bed, mad with grief and mortification. What a fool 
he had been! His money was gone, and he was 


SPREADING 1"HE WINGS 


unable to go back home to see his parents. What 
would they think of him, when they learnt how 
he had yielded to temptation — he who always used 
to boast of his strength of character ? What would 
become of him? 

These reflections ended in a determination to 
hurry to the broker’s the very next morning and 
take the vacant place without quibbling. But if 
he did, when would he ever get home again? Oh, 
such a fool as he was! But then the old playmates 
were so ingratiating, and who could suppose that 
it would turn out this way? 

When he got to the broker’s office the next 
day it was only to find that the place had been 
taken by another. 

This was a hard blow. He was down to his 
last shilling — what was he to do? Fearing that his 
comrades would again look him up, he did not dare 
to go back to his quarters, but walked the streets, 
feeling comparatively safe from meeting them. 
After a while he entered a caf4, ate his luncheon 
and scanned the newspapers for some situation that 
he might apply for, but found none. 

In the afternoon he strolled about the parks, 
looking absently at the upper world of Eondon as 
it passed in review along the drives, eyeing the 


90 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


well-dressed pedestrians, the gay sports and beauti- 
ful ladies on horseback with the same dull indif- 
ference. 

He reflected that had he come to London as 
the heir to the Ornholm estate, he also would have 
belonged to the classes; now he was but a poor 
young man of the masses, who had been robbed 
of his earnings in a mean way. 

Steeped in sad thoughts, he did not notice any 
one near him until a firm hand was laid on his 
shoulder and a familiar voice said: 

“My dear Harold — are you here?” 

He turned around instantly and held out his 
hand to meet that of Captain Bryant. 

“Well, well, captain!” he exclaimed; “you 
here too, and I thought you were in the country.” 

“I was, but you know, when the old warhorse 
hears the trumpet, he breaks loose. That’s what I 
have done. I heard that a new expedition was 
going to the Arctics in search of Sir John Frank- 
lin, and as my old superior. Lieutenant M’Clure, is 
to command the ship, I want to go along. I am 
now on my way to see him.” 

“I’ll go along, too,” Harold volunteered. “You 
need not think the young colt is less fiery than the 


spreading the wings 


9^ 


old steed. But do you think the commander will 
accept me?” he added doubtfully. 

“Why not? You are used to the climate,” 
said the captain, voicing the notion prevalent among 
foreigners that Sweden lies mostly in the frigid 
zone. “But, my young friend, don’t take a rash 
step. We are likely to meet with difficulties and 
privations almost too great for human power to 
endure. I’ll give you a night to think it over,” 
said Captain Bryant when the two separated. 

On the morrow Harold was fixed in his resolve 
to go, and the two friends joined the expedition. 
After they had been fitted out for the voyage, and 
especially equipped with warm fur-lined and water- 
proof garments, and Harold had written a long 
letter home to his parents, they left for Plymouth, 
the starting-point of the expedition. 

On board the. ship they were cordially received 
by the commander, with whose noble demeanor 
and pleasant ways Harold was highly charmed. 

It was in the year 1850 that the “Investigator” 
weighed anchor and started for Bering Strait with 
fair winds and all sails spread. 

Would they ever again see the white shores of 
their beloved Albion? 

This was the question uppermost in the minds 


92 


I'HK FORI'UNKS 01^ 


of the British sailors; but Harold thought not of 
the return: he was keen for new adventures, and 
dreamed of such while the ship with its great 
white wings flew across the waters of the Atlantic. 

Starting in January, 1850, the expedition sailed 
southwest, and after passing the Strait of Magellan 
steered northward in Pacific waters, reaching Bering 
Strait in July of the same year, shortly crossing 
the Arctic Circle. 


DC 

□on 


DC 

DC 

DC 

DC 

DC 

GO 

□0 

□ID 

□0 

□0 
- — 


XIIL 

IN THE FROZEN NORTH 

« OWARD the end of the summer the expedi- 
tion entered Arctic waters, and a few days 
later they sighted the ship “Herald,” Captain 
Kellet, which had cruised in Antarctic waters for 
three years before going into the Arctics. The ves- 
sels passed within hailing distance of one another, 
and the crew of the “Herald,” 230 men, were ordered 
into the rigging and manned the yards in honor of 
their departing countrymen. 

With melancholy feelings the polar party saw 
the “Herald” disappear astern, severing the last link 
between them and the civilized world. 

There was a fresh breeze and the air was crisp 
and clear. The “Investigator” had all sails set, and 
was making unimpeded progress until one day the 
lookout suddenly called out: “Ice ahead!” 


93 


94 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


Harold hastened up to the lookout and saw 
enormous blocks of ice come floating toward them, 
while further ahead the sea was covered with one 
solid sheet of ice. 

There was now little chance of further progress. 
The ship was caught in the crush of ice, and the 
crew had to work hard until a late hour that night 
before she got clear. 

Upon the ice-floes lay hundreds of walrus, star- 
ing blandly at the huge white-winged monster that 
suddenly loomed up in these regions, where they 
had been sole rulers from time out of mind. When 
the ship came near, they all plunged into the water 
as if propelled by the same force, but soon again 
came to the surface. 

The ice was of great thickness, and the younger 
and less experienced seafarers already despaired of 
ever getting through. Among them was Harold. 
Bryant, who noticed his dejected look, asked taunt- 
ingly: 

“If you had known anything about polar ice, 
would you still have come with us?” 

Harold hesitated, and, slapping him on the 
shoulder, Bryant continued: 

“Well, my boy, the worst is not yet, but for 


IN THE FROZEN NORTH 


95 


all that we’ve got to screw our courage to the 
sticking point and never give up hope.” 

Again there was a report from the lookout, this 
time announcing land ahead. 

“Do you have the watch tomorrow forenoon? 
If not, you might get permission to go ashore with 
Miertsching, the missionary, and see the Esquimaux. 
Fie came along to act as interpreter to the polar 
tribes, you know,” said Bryant. 

The next day a party landed and proceeded up 
a slope to a wide plain, covered with grass and 
bright-hued flowers. 

Flarold could not desist from picking some 
dwarfed blue bells, at the sight of which a flood of 
childhood memories rushed through his mind. 

A group of unarmed Esquimaux came to meet 
them. They were a dirty, poverty-stricken lot. The 
women had their faces tattooed, wdiile each of the 
men had a pair of glass beads or round pebbles in- 
serted in the lower lip. 

Questioned by the missionary whether they had 
seen anything of Sir John Franklin and his crew, 
they looked at one another and answered no. 

A few gifts having been distributed among them, 
the nomads trooped off, and the landing party re- 
turned to the ship. That evening the crew had a 


96 


THK FORTUNES OF LIFE 


return visit from the Esquimaux, who came in a 
number of kayaks. Invited on board, they soon 
threw off their reserve, and entertained the men 
with their native songs and dances. 

Some offered fish in exchange for tobacco. The 
fish grew smaller and smaller as the bartering went 
on. When the crew noticed this, they reduced the 
size of the plugs, but the Esquimaux, not to be 
outdone in shrewd bargaining, then began cutting 
their little fishes in two. The visitors were far from 
honest and stole openly, wherefore they were chased 
helter-skelter into their kayaks and forbidden to 
return. 

A few days more of sailing, and another group 
of Esquimaux were sighted on an island off the 
mouth of Colville Bay. 

This time Harold was ordered to accompany 
the captain and the missionary, who with a small 
party landed and went to meet them. They were 
all armed, and the British flag flew at the bow of 
the ship. 

The islanders met them with knives and lances, 
and arrows whizzed through the air. Their hostility 
soon ceased, however, and these simple folk, who 
had never seen a European, fell into transports of 
joy, manifesting their delight by repeating again 


IN THK FROZEN NORTH 


97 


and again the prevalent mode of greeting by rub- 
bing noses with one another. 

These people were better looking and neater 
in their dress. Their chief, Attua, was a man of 
good intelligence and agreeable appearance. He had 
three wives and thirteen children. The tribe used 
to spend their summers near the seashore, and their 
clean-looking tents could be seen in the distance. 

They called the vessel a floating island, and 
were greatly astonished when they learnt that it 
could be started and stopped at will. 

The missionary engaged them in conversation 
and sought to give them some idea of God, the 
Creator of heaven and earth and man. He told 
them that God can do everything and see every- 
thing we do. They seemed never to have given a 
thought to these matters. 

They listened attentively, until the missionary, 
pointing his finger upward, stated that God dwells 
L-eyond the sun and the stars, when an old Esqui- 
mau named Kemalualik stepped forward and cor- 
rected him in these words: 

“Over our heads there is a large, blue house. 
It is the home of the Sun. In the summer time 
the Sun is not at home, but as soon as he enters 
his house darkness spreads over the earth. In the 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


house are many small holes, where the Sun peeps 
through at night.” 

About the life after death they had a queer 
notion. They held that there are two lands, one 
beautiful, the other ugly and desolate. In the beau- 
tiful land dwells a good spirit, who guards the game 
and wild beasts so that they do not run away. In 
the ugly land dwells an evil spirit, who inflicts evil 
on men. When an Esquimau, who has given 
food and clothing to widows and fatherless children, 
departs this life, he goes to the beautiful country, 
where the sun always shines, where the weather is 
always mild and no snowstorms occur, and where 
seals, reindeer and other desirable animals are found 
in abundance and may be caught with bare hands. 

The Englishmen distributed presents among 
these children of nature, who were highly elated. 
Among other things there were some small looking- 
glasses, which they held to be magic charms. Not 
knowing the meaning of a gift, they at once offered 
something in exchange. 

Time would not permit Captain M’Clure to re- 
main long on the island. However much he regret- 
ted to leave these friendly people in ignorance and 
heathenism, he was obliged to depart, taking the 
missionary with him. 


IN THE FROZEN NORTH 


99 


Over the shoulders of a young mother, who 
with a little child on her back stood near the land- 
ing-place, the captain threw a big red shawl he had 
worn. The woman was very much surprised and, 
having nothing else at hand, she drew forth her 
child with an agonized look on her face, kissed it 
and handed it to the captain. The shawl she dared 
hardly touch. 

When the missionary explained to her that it 
was a gift, she smiled her thanks and seemed highly 
pleased that she was permitted to keep her child. 

Taking the shawl, she asked what animals had 
such red skins. These people were dressed only in 
skins and knew nothing of woven goods. They 
therefore supposed that the sails, coats, handker- 
chiefs and paper of the Europeans were various 
kinds of skins. 

These visits to the Esquimau tribes, a number 
of which lived along the coast, proved a welcome 
break now and then in the monotonous life of the- 
explorers. But there were more perilous diversions. 
The danger which they most dreaded, until they 
became accustomed to it, was the constant grinding 
of the ice against the ship. The floes would crack 
suddenly with a thundering sound, and block would 


lOO 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


pile on block on one side of the ship, while on the 
other was formed an open glade. 

September was at an end. The sun rose but a 
short while above the horizon; the crash and roar 
of breaking ice increased, and there was no hope 
of reaching open water all that winter. 

One morning while the officers sat at the break- 
fast table, there came a tremendous crash. All 
rushed on deck. An open sheet of water had formed 
to starboard, but on the larboard side great blocks 
of ice were piling up against the railing. The ice 
was in motion all around them; the sky was over- 
ca.st and the rumbling noise of the ice sounded like 
rolling thunder. The ice-pack now towered high 
over the deck. Would the “Investigator” be crushed 
like an eggshell under this enormous weight? 

The crew were ordered on deck. The captain 
gave instructions to clear the boats, and stipulated 
how they should be manned. Tents were brought 
out, and all who could be spared from other duties 
helped the steward sort out and stow away the 
provisions. 

The hours crept by at a snail’s pace, and no 
one thought of the mess. The ship was now almost 
on her beam ends, and the men were compelled to 
cling to ropes and gunnels in moving aboiit. The 


IN THE FROZEN NORTH 


lOI 


ice began to fill the open water and pile up on the 
starboard side also. 

At midnight a dead silence fell over the scene. 
All nature was still as the grave, and the men drew 
a deep sigh of relief. But this lasted but a few 
moments, whereupon the rumbling grew louder and 
more ominous. Every man stood with a bundle of 
necessary clothing, tools and utensils, awaiting the 
order to leave the ship and climb over the ice-pack 
in search of land. During eleven hours of anxious 
waiting they listened to the roar and crash of the 
ice, intermingled ever and anon with the whining 
and yelping of the Esquimau dogs confined in the 
hold of the vessel. 

One purpose of Captain M’Clure’s visits to the 
Esquimaux had been to purchase dogs, and a 
couple of dozen trained sledge-dogs had been pro- 
cured. These were shut up in kennels, and the 
crew were extremely pained at the thought of leav- 
ing the animals to starve to death, for they had 
become very much attached to their four-legged 
friends, whose romps and gambols they had watched 
with the keenest pleasure. 

Again a death-like silence fell, but only to be 
followed by the redoubled booming of bursting floes. 
The clouds were suddenly torn to shreds and swept 


102 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


rapidly across the firmament. The ice-pack around 
the vessel began to break up, and soon the ship 
was free, but gigantic waves soon dashed over the 
deck, while the storm howled in the rigging and 
drove the vessel swiftly in the direction of Prince 
Albert Land. Fearing that the ‘TnvestigatoU’ 
might be dashed to pieces on the rocks, Captain 
M’Clure had the ship moored to an iceberg with 
strong cables over night. 

It was a night never to be forgotten. 

“I’ve been out in all sorts of w^eather,” said 
Bryant; “I’ve seen storms in which the masts and 
spars snapped like reeds, but it was nothing to 
this.’’ 

Harold stood at his side, thinking of home, 
and a few tears, which he had been unable to sup- 
press, froze to his cheeks. 

The ship rocked and lurched violently in the 
turbulent sea, and the ice began to prepare for a 
renewed attack upon the ship. A couple of sailors 
were seen to tap a keg of whisky in an attempt to 
gain new courage. They had to be tucked under 
heavy blankets in order not to freeze to death. 
The ice was now towering high around the ship, 
every part of which was glazed over and fringed 
with icicles. Everything had to be made fast with 


IN THK FROZEN NORTH 


103 


ropes and cables, even to the crew, lest they be 
swept overboard. A few blocks more piled up 
against the ship, and it would have foundered. Just 
then a mighty voice seemed to* have commanded: 
“Peace, be still!” For almost instantly the boom- 
ing ceased and the storm abated. The men looked 
wonderingly at one another, fearing that the ele- 
ments granted a truce only to prepare for a more 
terrific attack. But no — the hurricane had spent 
its force. Through rent clouds the moon beamed 
down upon a churned up sea, in which blocks of 
ice were still tossed about but without power to do 
further harm. 

At this moment Harold heard a few chords 
struck on a stringed instrument and a melodious 
voice sing this stanza from an English hymn: 

In storm and stress, I fear no harm. 

If Thou protect me with Thy arm; 

I am secure, by sea or land, 

O Ivord, beneath Thy strong right hand. 

Going below, he softly opened the door of the 
cabin whence the sound came, and saw the mission- 
ary, pale and tearful, easing his heart in song to 
the accompaniment of a guitar. Harold stopped 
and listened in silence. The singer made a sign for 
him to enter, and after finishing the song, directed 


104 


THE FORTUNES OF RIFE 


to the young sailor a few heartfelt words about the 
sun of God’s mercy, which even in their dark night 
of distress had shed its beneficent rays over them. 
Touched by his words, Harold sat down and list- 
ened, oblivious of cold, hunger and exhaustion. 

A sweet voice seemed to whisper these w^ords 
into his ear: “A new heart also wdll I give you, 
and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will 
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I 
will give you a heart of flesh.” 

Up to this time Harold had let no one look 
into his soul; but the fearful revolt of nature just 
witnessed had softened his heart and made it recep- 
tive to divine influence. 

While they were still talking, they were called 
on deck, where the captain in a short, pithy speech 
pointed to the great perils through which the ship’s 
crew had just passed and exhorted all to bow their 
heads and hearts before the Almighty in humble 
gratitude for a miraculous deliverance from impend- 
ing death. 

After the chaplain had led in prayer and thanks- 
giving, Captain M’Clure ordered extra rations to be 
served, whereupon all but the watch retired to 
their bunks. 



WINTER QUARTERS 

Prince of Wales Strait, between Baring 
Island and Prince Albert I^and, the “Investi- 
^ gator” expedition was to go into winter quar- 
ters, and everything was done to provide the officers 
and crew all comforts possible in these inhospitable 
regions. 

A tent of strong canvas was stretched above 
the deck as a protection from snow. Around the 
ship the rough ice was leveled and smoothed by 
blasting the larger blocks and filling the hollows in 
between. Thus a good-sized area was turned into 
a sort of yard for play and exercise. Around it 
was erected a wall of snow about ten feet thick. 

The deck was covered with a layer of so-called 
polar cement, a mixture of sand, snow and water, 
which in freezing turns hard as granite and gives 
a secure foothold. 


105 


io6 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


On the nth of November, the sun peeped above 
the horizon for but one minute, to bid the party 
goodbye for three whole months. 

But there was one compensation for the absence 
of daylight in the splendor of the polar winternight. 
The Aurora Borealis flamed and sparkled, now like 
a huge crown of light from which lancelike rays 
shot like rockets into the clear blue dome, now in 
all the glory of a bright-colored rainbow. It was 
a symphony of color, played by the hand of the 
Almighty. All was purity, clearness, silence — 
eternity foreshadowed more forcefully here than 
anywhere else on earth, and every one endowed 
with a sense of the sublime was filled with a sol- 
emnity akin to devotion. 

On his nightly patrol around the “Investigator,’’ 
as she lay imbedded in the solid ice, Harold watched 
the moon glide over the firmament, shedding its 
silvery light on the white ice-fields and the frosted 
spars and rigging, and thought the chaste moon- 
beams everywhere sought for purity and that alone; 
and in these long vigils he often searched the 
depths of his own heart. He reproached himself 
for many things, and his past filled his heart with 
remorse. He looked upward and saw the same 
evening star that shone into his chamber in his 


WINITKR QUARTERS 


107 


childhood. It bore him greetings from father and 
mother, from Valborg and Ellen, and when his 
hour-glass had run out and the watch was changed 
he crawled into his bunk and dreamt himself back 
into their midst. 

In the cabooses the cold was intense, but after 
the men had become accustomed to it, they stood 
it well, and while working, they always kept warm. 

In the cabin, which v/as heated with redhot 
cannon-balls, the officers gathered for reading, 
writing, scientific work and social intercourse. 

For the benefit of the crew a school was started, 
in which they became highly interested. Bearded 
men with stiff fingers sat with slates and pencils in 
hand reviving their half -forgotten knowledge of 
writing and ciphering. Between times they were 
kept busy in the various workshops, for the ship, 
with its machinery, sails, tackle and cordage, had 
to be kept in trim. On the ice they had a smithy, 
built of snow. The carpenters worked on deck. 
Those who could handle the needle and the awl 
repaired the clothing and shoes of the sailors. After 
the busy hours, the men took recreation in wrest- 
ling, dancing and various games. 

On Sunday all rested. Dr. Miertsching, the 
missionary, conducted divine services, and if the 


THK FORTUNES OF LIFE 


io8 

singing to the accompaniment of his guitar was not 
so fine as the masses in the churches of England, 
the devotion was fully as genuine, while no cathe- 
dral built by man compared in grandeur with the 
dome under which they gathered. 

The dogs gave the crew a great deal of pleas- 
ure and pastime — the little puppies which first 
opened their eyes in the kennels on board the “In- 
vestigator’ ’ no less than the old and trained hunting 
and sledge dogs. 

The latter were often hitched to the sledges 
for a trip over the ice-fields. So far as the surface 
was fairly smooth and even, all went well, but 
when they reached the rough places or rushed 
headlong over high blocks or deep crevices, the 
driver would often be thrown out and dragged mer- 
cilessly along until the spirited animals chose to 
stop. Such adventures were not without peril, but 
they had their uses, inasmuch as they gave the 
doctor and the sailors something to do and every 
one something to talk about and laugh over. 

Harold was particularly fond of hunting, and 
he had every opportunity to engage in that sport, 
for much seal and walrus oil was needed for the 
lamps, and the steward had no objection to his 
replenishing the larder with an occasional bear-steak. 


WINTER QUARTERS 


109 


At one time Harold and the missionary and the 
two sub-lieutenants, Bryant and Saintsbury, started 
on a trip to Prince Albert Eand, taking with them, 
as usual, a pack of dogs. 

After traveling a great distance, the men gath- 
ered a pile of driftwood and cooked some coffee. 
Their sandwiches, which were frozen hard, were 
thawed out by the fire and then heartily consumed 
with the steaming beverage. 

As they lingered by the comfortable fire after 
eating, they saw moving objects at a great distance. 
They looked intently in that direction, and the dogs 
pricked up their ears. When the objects came 
nearer, they proved to be a herd of reindeer. 
Saintsbury’ s hands were so stiff with cold that 
he could not handle a gun, but the other three 
men crawled on their hands and feet to a nearby 
rock, from which they could watch the herd with- 
out being seen. As the animals calmly proceeded 
to paw the snow with their hoofs in search of 
reindeer moss, Harold and Bryant stole away to the 
other side of the herd. Harold had just taken his 
position, when a report was heard and a reindeer 
fell dead, struck by a bullet from the missionary’s 
gun. The whole herd instantly started off in pan- 
icky flight, in the direction of Harold, who held 


no 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


his fire until they were close upon him. One of 
the animals was wounded and fled in another direc- 
tion, followed by Bryant’s dogs. Harold now fired 
and unleashed his dogs, which filled the air with 
their yelps. The hunters, eager for the chase, hur- 
ried forward, and two or three more animals were 
killed or wounded, while the rest made their escape. 

The time was far spent when the hunters gath- 
ered up their game, rejoicing over the plentiful 
supply of fresh meat. Saintsbury now came to their 
assistance, and he was much needed, for the ani- 
mals were very heavy to haul through the deep 
snow. Four of them were brought together, but 
the fifth one shot was still missing. Harold and 
Bryant started off to get him, but the search was 
long and difficult, several hours having elapsed since 
the first shot was fired, and snow having fallen in 
the meantime, almost effacing the tracks. 

Harold, being more accustomed to tracking 
game in the snow than was his friend Bryant, hur- 
ried ahead and finally discovered the fallen reindeer. 
A she-bear and her two cubs were on the spot 
making a meal of it. He got within range unob- 
served and, firing, missed the big bear but killed 
one of the cubs. The enraged mother made straight 
for the assailant. He fired again but missed. The 


WINTER QUARTERS 


III 


bear attacked him and knocked him down with a 
powerful stroke of her paw. The jaws open and 
close around Harold’s arm. He feels the teeth pen- 
etrating through the fur sleeve, which is frozen 
hard and stiff. They enter the flesh — he feels the 
blood escaping — he grows faint and is about to 
swoon. 

Just then a shot is heard. With a fierce growl 
the bear opens her jaws and then falls in a heap 
on the snow. Harold jumped to his feet in exulta- 
tion over the timely rescue. A trifle pale, but prac- 
tically uninjured, for the loss of blood was slight, 
he grasped the hand of Bryant, to whom he owed 
his life. 

The living cub trotted to and fro between 
mother and brother, growling viciously and casting 
such reproachful glances at the hunters that they 
felt compunction and dispatched him with the 
others. 

Bryant stayed to watch the quarry, while Har- 
old went back to the ship for men and sledges. He 
returned with a number of the crew, some carrying 
torches, and a couple of dog-sledge outfits. The 
animals were skinned and quartered, and the product 
of the first quarry was loaded on one of the sledges 
and sent back to the ship, while Harold, Bryant 


II2 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


and the others went to assist the missionary and 
Lieutenant Saintsbury with the four reindeer. 

Almost twenty-four hours passed before the 
hunters, tired [and hungry, returned to the winter 
quarters. 

There they found everybody busy. Captain 
M’Clure had given orders for the fitting out of an 
extensive dog-sledge expedition across the ice. A 
couple of sledges were accordingly loaded with pro- 
visions, tents, arms and ammunition. The captain 
desired to make a number of scientific investigations. 
The party started out one morning by the bright 
moonlight, followed by the good wishes of those 
remaining on the ship. The trip successfully com- 
pleted, the party returned to the “Investigator” on 
the day before Christmas. 

Everything was in ship-shape for the holidays. 
The brass mountings had been burnished till they 
reflected the moonbeams, but there was no holly 
or mistletoe with which to decorate the cabin. The 
customary Christmas dishes were served, including 
goose and plum-pudding, but nothing could relieve 
the feeling of sadness that came over every man at 
the thought of home, where on that night his place 
was vacant at the festive board. 

The captain made a snappy speech, lauding the 







Reunited, 






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WINTER QUARTERS 


111 

crew for their excellent behavior and promising to 
do everything in his power to shorten their term of 
imprisonment and lighten their hardships — a prom- 
ise which he honestly fulfilled. 

Harold’s thoughts went back to the last Christ- 
mas at Ornholm. When he went outside and saw 
the flames of the Northern lights licking the heav- 
ens, he was reminded of all the terrors of the fire 
on that Christmas eve. The memory pursued him 
in his sleep and the dreams of the following night 
filled him with anxiety and melancholy longings for 
several days to come. 

In the early days of February the surrat length 
began to bob up over the horizon for a minute or 
two. The cold was so intense that the mercury 
froze, still the explorers hailed with joy the return 
of day, and anticipations of springtime filled their 
minds. There was, indeed, a novel and mysterious 
charm about a sunrise after months of night or 
twilight gloom. The work hitherto done by the 
light of glimmering lamps and smoking torches 
seemed to lighten when daylight set in,* but even 
that novelty wore off as the days grew longer. 

The monotony again grew irksome. Snow and 
ice on every side; no signs of life; no birdsong and 
no flowers, although the noonday sun now had 


THK FORTUNES OF FIFE 


114 

grown so warm that men and dogs would lie bask- 
ing in its rays. But the brightness of the snow- 
fields was too much for the eyes, and several of the 
crew suffered severely from snowblindness. Besides, 
the long, intensely bright and extremely cold days 
tended to bring on nervousness and insomnia. 

Despite all hardships, the confidence of the men 
in their commander grew more firm from day to 
day. Captain M’Clure was always calm and com- 
posed. His strength was equal to any emergency, 
and he was tireless in his solicitude for the comfort 
and welfare of every member of the expedition. 

Especially did the younger members look up to 
him with admiration, and Harold was never so 
happy as when in the captain’s presence. 

One day when the weather was quite mild, 
some of the officers went out for a stroll. Mean- 
while a heavy arctic fog came up, cold and gray, 
which dampened the spirits of the men and filled 
their fur garments with moisture. It grew in den- 
sity, and soon the party lost one another, Harold 
alone remaining with Captain M’Clure. 

The latter had often taken notice of the young 
man’s excellent, not to say genteel, manners, which 
had become still more agreeable since his intimate 
acquaintance with the missionary. 


WINTER QUARTERS 


115 

The captain therefore took this opportunity to 
question him about his past life and his motives in 
leaving his home and native land so young to join 
in a voyage so risky and so full of hardship. 

Encouraged by this show of interest on the part 
of his chief, Harold told his life story, not omitting 
his sad disappointment and humiliation. 

“I can well understand your feelings,” said 
Captain M’Clure, “for I myself have had to pass 
through a like experience. My father, Major 
M’Clure, an officer of high repute, fought in the 
war with Spain and was wounded on the battlefield. 
He died in the arms of his friend and comrade in 
arms. General Ee Messure, to whose care in his 
dying hour he entrusted his orphaned child. The 
general, my godfather, for whom I was named 
Robert Ee Messure, faithfully carried out his prom- 
ise to my dying father. He took me along to his 
estates in Ireland and brought me up as though I 
had been his own son, having then no children of 
his own, and promised to make me sole heir to his 
fortune. After a childless union of twenty-four 
years, a son was born to him, followed by several 
children besides. Thereby my claims to the inher- 
itance were annulled. My fosterfather, however, 
continued to provide generously for me. I was per- 


Ii6 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


mitted to make my own choice of vocation, and 
although I chose to be a sailor against his wishes, 
he still gave me most liberal support and equip- 
ment for pursuing that career. But I soon learnt 
to know the difference between being a poor officer 
in the navy and the heir to the wealthy general’s 
estate. 

“Since then, however, I have had cause to 
thank God for what happened, for had I not been 
disinherited, my name would doubtless never have 
been coupled with this expedition and the services 
to science that I hope to render, if it please the 
Lord to free us from this crystal prison. And you, 
my young friend, will surely find your adversities 
accrue to your good in the end, inasmuch as they 
will bring out what is in you. It is a fine thing 
to be rich, but better still to be the architect of 
your own fortune.” 

Captain M’Clure’s words made a deep impression 
on Harold’s mind and he thought them over and 
over during the long, tedious days he spent in 
forced inactivity, straining his eyes to discover the 
smallest rift in the ice-floe presaging the opening 
of the sea. 

The boom and crash of the ice had begun, but 
still the armor of the ocean refused to yield. Finally, 


WINTER QUARTERS 


117 


on the first day of June, 1851, the ship was released 
and made good headway in a fair breeze. The de- 
parture was so precipitous that the linen wash spread 
out on the ice for bleaching had to be left behind 
— quite a serious loss in a clime where the garments 
could not be replaced. 

The long imprisonment ended, the sailors re- 
turned to their duties with light hearts, and all on 
board were in the best of spirits. 

The animal world was also revived. The white 
gulls circled around the masts; the brown seals dis- 
ported themselves in great herds on the floes or 
dived playfully in and out of the blue glades on 
whose surface glittered the summer sunlight. 

The winds whistled in the rigging and filled 
the bulging sails, and the ship was making splen- 
did^ headway, but ere long new perils confronted 
the expedition. 

Icebergs of great height and enormous volume 
were drifting about on every side. The vessel sought 
to pick her way among them, but they would some- 
times close in from several directions at once, 
threatening to crush her between the ponderous 
masses. 

Attempts were made to blow up the huge mon- 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


118 


sters with powder — dynamite was still unknown — 
but the explosive proved powerless against them. 

So great was the peril at one time that the 
captain himself called out in despair: 

“It’s all over with us. In five minutes we 
shall go down!’’ 

Only by a miracle, it seemed, could the expe- 
dition now be saved. 

Suddenly the drifting ice-pack stopped. A 
deathlike silence ensued. The sailors turned pale 
at their posts of duty. The threatening iceberg 
stopped short, and the foundering vessel again 
righted herself and moved forward among the ice- 
blocks. She glided on with a speed of six knots 
per hour, despite the fact that there was no water 
in sight, and the lookout ever and anon reported 
through the rubber tube down to the oiB&cer on 
duty: 

“Ice ahead! . . . Ice ahead!’’ 

Unable to understand, the officer went up to 
the lookout and, looking ahead, saw but a narrow 
channel of open water, otherwise nothing but im- 
penetrable ice packs as far as eye could reach. 

The chief officers, with others, also viewed the 
remarkable phenomenon of a ship, fullrigged and 
with all its canvas spread, going at a brisk rate 


WINTER QUARTERS 


hour after hour along a narrow fissure in a sea 
otherwise blockaded with ice. 

After some time the pilot again called out: 

‘Tee ahead!” 

Instantly all hands were ordered to reef the 
sails. But before the order could be carried out, 
the pilot reported the sea navigable ahead. The 
sails were again braced sharp and for another half 
hour the ship moved on in the course opened for 
her by Providence, her sides frequently scraping 
against the walls of ice that hemmed her in on 
either side. 

Without being relieved, the pilot now left his 
post and came bn deck. He averred that there 
were “queer goings-on,” and he could stand it no 
longer. Even when there wasn’t a spoonful of 
water in sight, he said, the ship sailed merrily on, 
and that could hardly be right. The captain ordered 
him to return to his post, but he dared not, despite 
the lucky turn things had taken. It was afterward 
found that the man had been stricken with snow- 
blindness. 

When darkness set in the captain ordered the 
vessel moored to the floe, but before this could be 
done she grounded on a sandbank. The crew 
worked all night to get her afloat. All heavy ar- 


120 


THK FORTUNES OF LIFE 


tides were stowed in the boats to lighten the ship, 
but even then she would not budge. Finally the 
captain posted double watches for the night and all 
the rest turned in. 

On the way to his own cabin the captain met 
the chaplain and Harold and invited them to take 
a cup of tea with him after having changed their 
wet clothing. 

As they entered, he met them with an open 
book in his hand. 

“Took here,” said he, turning to the mission- 
ary, “you hold that there’s always a Bible passage 
to fit every occasion. Well, in this hour of need, 
when all our lives are in the balance, I open the 
good book and find these words: T sought the 
Eord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all 
my fears.’ But I know very well what fate has in 
store for us.” 

The chaplain admitted that there would some- 
times be an apparent conflict between certain texts 
and the current of events, but he had found that 
in the end the Eord’ s promises always held good. 

When the captain raised his teacup to his lips 
a few minutes later, the vessel suddenly lurched as 
if struck amidships by another vessel. 

Every man rushed on deck, including the cap- 



9 9 


“Is it really you, 


whispered the mother. 




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'i2 


WINTER QUARTERS lit 

tain and his guests. It was found that an enor- 
mous block of ice had pushed the “Investigator’^ 
off the sandbank and set the vessel afloat. 

The captain turned to the chaplain with tears 
in his eyes and pressed his hand warmly in token 
of renewed faith in the Almighty. 



XV. 

THE BAY OF GOD’S MERCY 

n * 

„^J^OWARDS the east, the ice still remained im- 
c/^ penetrable, and Captain M’Clure concluded 
^ to look for a suitable haven where the 
“Investigator” might be laid up for the approaching 
winter. 

Accordingly he made straight for Banks I^and, 
on the south shore of which he found a bay about 
twenty-five feet deep and protected from heavy seas 
by a long sandbank. 

There the vessel was anchored on the 25th day 
of September, and having completed all arrange- 
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deck. He thanked them, one and all, for their ex- 
cellent deportment and never failing attention to 
duty, even under the severest tests, and exhorted 


122 


BAY OB GOD’S MERCY 


123 


them to meet future hardships and privations with 
like fortitude. Closing his remarks, he said: 

“The sandy reef yonder I hereby name Point 
Providence, and let this bay, in which we are to 
spend the winter, be known as the Bay of God’s 
Mercy, in grateful acknowledgment of the wonder- 
ful providence of God.” 

Again everything was put in order for the long 
polar night. The workshops and the schools were 
opened anew; the officers spent their time in study 
and scientific work or went hunting with detach- 
ments of the crew. In these regions, however, seal 
and walrus were more scarce than in the neighbor- 
hood of Prince Albert Eand. A saving had to be 
made in oil for the lamps, and in consequence the 
working hours were shortened. 

Even the rations were reduced owing to a short- 
age in game and provisions. Bears and polar foxes 
were skulking about in the vicinity, but hunting 
had its difficulties, for after a couple of dogs had 
been attacked by a bear, all of them were in mortal 
dread of going ashore. That and several other bears 
had been laid low, but they were old and starved 
out fellows and so fierce that only the bravest of 
men dared to tackle them, and then only in large 
parties. 


124 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


It turned out to be a severe and stormy winter 
with much snow, which sometimes accumulated 
around the “Investigator” in such masses that the 
ship had to be literally dug out of the drifts. The 
splendors of the polar sky remained the same, and 
men now had ampler time to enjoy the spectacular 
play of the northern lights. Yet they were less 
deeply impressed than during the previous winter, 
when, after the arduous hours of work, they sat in 
silent awe under the lustrous dome, listening to the 
symphony played by the hand of the Eternal One. 
The novelty had worn off and the tedium turned 
what at first seemed a grand shrine into a cold 
prison. Hungry and dejected, they had all they 
could do to keep warm by constant walking, and 
as fancy painted in glowing colors the pleasures of 
home, a monstrous home-sickness sunk its talons 
into their very hearts. 

Harold was given every opportunity to reflect 
over his past life. How different was his aspect in 
the frigid polar night from that which stood before 
him in the balmy summer evenings at home in dear 
old Sweden. 

The insignificant little cottage that sheltered 
him at Seawich loomed before his mind’s eye like 
a splendid palace, and all the huge tasks that 


BAY OF GOD’S MERCY 


125 


seemed impossible in his boyhood days were now 
mere child’s play. How he regretted his former 
peevishness and irritability over trifles. Dike all the 
rest, he was softened by privation and suffering, 
and shed tears of remorse, as a child weeps over 
its errors. With these were blended the bitter-sweet 
tears of intense homesickness. He now felt how 
strong were the ties that bound him to home and 
country. He resolved that were he offered all the 
honors in the world, he would forego them and 
strive alone for the honor and glory of old Sweden. 
Would he ever again see that cherished land and 
hear the music of his native tongue from his moth- 
er’s lips? It all rested with God, who up here in 
the solitude had become his best friend. He now 
fully understood his sister Ellen and rejoiced to know 
that their prayers met at the throne of heaven. He 
prayed often and with fervor, and in his communion 
with God gained new confidence and strength to 
endure coming hardships. Thus in the long arctic 
winter there sprung up and ripened in his heart the 
seeds of eternal life. 

With the approach of spring came dense fogs, 
during which cannon had to be fired at intervals to 
guide hunting parties back to the ship. The sun 
now rose high in the sky, yet the hunters would 


126 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


frequently return with^frozen hands or feet, while 
the dazzling light played havoc with their eyesight. 
Owing to the scarcity of food, the health of the 
men, which until now had continued good, began 
to fail. Month after month passed by, with no im- 
provement in conditions, except that game was 
somewhat more plentiful during the summer. 

They went out in the boats hunting walrus, 
fishing and shooting wild geese, but getting barely 
enough game for the present needs, but none over 
for winter supplies. They dreaded the coming win- 
ter, and the outlook grew steadily more gloomy and 
hopeless. As early as in August nothing but ice 
could be seen from the highest points of vantage, 
from which they spied in every direction for some 
trace of the lost expedition or any sign of human 
beings. 

Captain M’Clure was compelled for the third 
time to go into winter quarters with the ship and 
crew. Eack of oil forced the men to remain idle, 
and scant rations had so reduced their strength that 
even under more favorable conditions they would 
have been unable to perform any but the most need- 
ful duties. 

Several of the crew were confined to their beds 
by sickness, a couple of men went insane, yet no 


BAY OF GOD’S MERCY 


127 


ofie complained and every order was carried out 
with all possible promptness. 

The tedium at times drove the men to the 
verge of despair. One by one they began to walk 
about in the gloom to avoid looking into each 
others’ wan and melancholy faces. They dared not, 
however, absent themselves far from the ship, for 
not one among them dared alone face the bears who 
occasionally came skulking around the vessel. The 
booming of the ice-floes no longer had any terror 
for them, and they listened calmly to roars of 
thunder that would have appalled the novice. Ex- 
'’cept for the necessity of digging the “Investigator” 
out of the snow drifts or making fast everything on 
board, the crew lay practically inactive the v^rhole 
winter through. 

The barking of the polar foxes did not alarm 
them in the least. To Harold in particular these 
animals were rather welcome than otherwise, as 
they awakened memories from his native fields and 
forests around Ornholm. When he felt a little 
stronger than usual, his sportsman’s blood would 
tingle anew, but it cooled as quickly when he re- 
membered he had been compelled to shoot his two 
dogs. Sniff and Snap, long ago. 

As long as possible Captain M’Clure had tried 


128 


THK FORTUNES OF LIFE 


to keep all the dogs, but when driven to the ex- 
tremity of shortening the rations for the men, a 
saving had to be made also by reducing the num- 
ber of dogs, when the hunting dogs were the first 
to be killed. 

The one man who still kept up courage and 
kept the expedition from going to pieces was the 
captain himself. The cool and manly way in which 
he bore up under the most disheartening conditions 
had a wholesome effect upon the morale of his men. 
His own fortitude was not acquired without strug- 
gle. In long sleepless nights, and upon his lonely 
walks, when no human eye saw him, the chief of 
the expedition had contended with the Eord in fer- 
vent prayer, which always ended in renewed assur- 
ance of safe outcome. In these solitary hours he 
laid the plans which were subsequently followed out. 

The winter with all its terrors finally drew to 
a close. The sun climbed higher day by day, but 
as yet no vernal breezes had borne the cheering 
message of spring to the men on the “Investigator.” 

One day at the end of March, 1853, Captain 
M’Clure returned from an extensive excursion across 
the ice. He wore a very serious look and at once 
called the crew together. After having spoken a 
few words of cheer and gratitude, he informed them 


BAY OF GOD’S MERCY 


129 


of his determination to divide the expedition and 
dispatch two parties in different directions. One 
party of thirty men was to set out for Port Leo- 
pold, about 615 miles away; another party, includ- 
ing Dr. Miertsching and Harold, was to travel by 
sledges to Prince of Wales Eand, where supplies 
were stored, and from there try to take their way 
home as best they might. The captain himself, 
with the men still in good condition, was resolved 
to spend one more winter on board the ^‘Investi- 
gator,” whereupon they would attempt to reach 
Port Eeopold on foot. 

The plan, which was a desperate one,^filled the 
breasts- of all with extreme sadness. Those who 
were to stay envied their comrades who were de- 
signated to leave, and these in turn had little hope 
of reaching their destination. The majority, how- 
ever, trusted in the Eord to guide them still, as in 
the past, and with this faith in their hearts they 
went to work with a will. 

On board ship busy days followed. The sledges 
were hauled out and examined; the dogs, who had 
been in close confinement to keep them out of the 
way of the bears, were tried out on a short trip. 
Rations were measured out, weighed and packed; 


130 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


clothes were mended, and many letters were writ- 
ten, mostly by those who were to remain. 

The captain was busy every moment of the 
time. With tireless energy he superintended all the 
preparations and saw to it that those who w^ere to 
go as well as those remaining should have all the 
comforts and safeguards that could possibly be 
provided. 

To his family and friends at home he wrote 
letters and to the admiralty lengthy dispatches and 
reports. All maps, charts, manuscripts and diaries 
were left, sealed, in his care, together with every- 
thing that could not very well be taken along by 
the smaller parties. 

Two weeks having been consumed in prepara- 
tions, the seventh of April dawned. A snowstorm 
raged all forenoon, interfering with work, but along 
toward noon the weather cleared and the broad ice- 
fields were flooded with sunlight. 

The crew stood around the fettered ship in 
groups, shovels in hand, after having cleared a way 
through the snowdrifts. 

Harold went over to where Dr. Miertsching was 
standing and asked him certain questions. 

Captain M’Clure stood near by, talking to an 
officer about the probable outcome of the expedi- 


BAY OB GOD’S MERCY 


tions and the desperate plight of the “Investigator.” 
Walking over to him, the missionary handed the 
captain a heavy fur coat. 

The captain expressed his thanks, saying: 

“My friend, should you reach home in safety, 
and never after hear anything of Captain M’Clure 
and his followers, you will, no doubt, conclude that 
I am no longer among the living, but freed by death 
from all the troubles and trials of life. Wherever 
my body lies unburied, you shall know that it will 
be wrapped in the coat you have given me, but you 
may be still more certain that to the last I placed 
my only trust in my Saviour and that I died with 
a firm faith in a blessed resurrection.” 

While the ofiicers stood talking, a couple of the 
men discovered near the sky-line a dark spot which 
seemed to be slowly approaching. They climbed to 
the top of a high snowdrift to get a better view 
and to make sure their eyes did not deceive them. 
After watching closely a long while, first one and 
then the other came running down to the captain 
to report their discovery, shouting loudly in their 
enthusiasm: 

“It’s a man, it’s a man, and he’s driving a 
sledge!” 

Could it be an Esquimau? Hope revived at 


132 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


the very possibility, for where he came from others 
could go. For twenty-one months the crew of the 
“Investigator” had not seen a new face, so who- 
ever the stranger might be, he was sure of a hearty 
welcome. 

The captain hurried ahead of the others to 
meet the guest. 

At a distance they saw a slender and very agile 
little man hurry toward them. Against the snow 
he looked perfectly black. He plodded along beside 
the sledge and occasionally stooped to push the 
vehicle where the snow was deep, so as to assist 
the tugging dogs. 

M’Clure stopped in blank surprise at the sight 
of the stranger, and for the nonce stood dumb- 
founded. Finally he asked the figure before him 
whether he was really a man or only some dark 
specter. 

“I am Lieutenant Pym of Her Majesty’s Ship 
‘Resolute,’ Captain Kellet, lying in winter quarters,” 
announced in a loud voice the thin and sooty little 
shadow of a man as he gave the military salute. 

Thereupon the two men shook hands, at which 
the stranger gave the captain a grip that convinced 
him that the figure before him was of flesh and 
blood, 


BAY OB GOD’S MERCY 


133 


The lieutenant was at once brought on board, 
where he was met with mighty cheers and shouts, 
which penetrated to the bunks below, and soon the 
sick and disabled came staggering up on deck, and 
all joined in a hymn of praise to the Highest for 
this new evidence that they were not forgotten. 

Captain Kellet on the “Resolute,” who had 
been sent to the relief both of Sir John Franklin 
and Captain M’Clure, after having found traces of 
the latter, had dispatched Eieutenant Pym and a 
small party, who arrived a little later, and after 
twenty-eight days of wearysome travel they found 
the “Investigator” at a most opportune moment. 

The M’Clure expedition up to this time had not 
lost a single man, but upon the arrival of the men 
from the “Resolute” four men among the sick lit- 
erally died of joy. With imposing solemnity they 
were buried in the frozen wilderness. 



XVI. 

A VAIN SEARCH 

* N the fifteenth day of April, 1853, Harold 
and part of the crew left the good ship 
“Investigator.” It was with some regret 
that they left this floating home, around which 
clustered so many memories, pleasant and otherwise. 

The chaplain conducted vespers, which deeply 
touched all present. Seldom have divine services 
been held with greater solemnity. The ice stretched 
like a frozen desert on all sides. Absolute quietude 
reigned. Back of them lay numberless hardships; 
before them lay a brighter, but untried future, 
shrouded in the mists of doubt, through which 
peeped a ray of hope that they might at length 
escape the death that lurked everywhere in the 
Arctics, and return to civilization and safety of life. 

134 


A VAIN search 


135 


The part of the crew who remained on board gave 
the departing comrades three hearty cheers as they 
drove off. 

Three days later, the little com^pany reached 
the “Resolute,” where they were warmly welcomed. 

Captain M’ Clure was disposed to spend still an- 
other winter on board his beloved “Investigator,” 
but only four of his men were willing to stay. So 
the good ship was at last abandoned. The vessel 
was made fast by double anchors, and after all 
openings had been closed it was left to its fate in 
the Bay of God’s Mercy. 

On reaching the “Resolute,” Harold and his 
party had hoped to have made good their escape 
from the icy prison, but the brave explorers were 
not yet beyond the boundaries of the realm of the 
Snow King. 

He chained them anew in crystal fetters, and 
again the sun retired for the long polar night, leav- 
ing the Aurora Borealis to rule the frozen world. 
The moon resumed her vigils and the icebergs stood 
like formidable sentinels around the poles. 

The intrepid Britons knew no fear. They held 
out another winter, but when April came again, 
the men from the “Investigator” started out to 
reach the ship “North Star.” They had distin- 


136 


THE FORTUNES OF RIFE 


guished themselves from the crew of the vessel they 
left by their good morals and their faith in God, 
characteristics which followed them through life 
and reflected still more honor on the men who were 
known as the “investigators” ever after. 

Off Beachy Island they encountered the great 
ship, which gathered in the crews of no less than 
six other vessels caught in the ice and abandoned. 
Eike the “Investigator,” all had been sent out in 
search of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, but all 
that any of them found was three monuments, 
erected over three of the perished crew, the oldest 
of whom was thirty- two, the youngest twenty. 

In August, the “North Star” finally succeeded 
in getting sea-room. She had then 278 men on 
board, but fortunately she soon encountered two 
British vessels, “Phoenix” and “Talbot,” both 
under Captain Inglefield’s command. These two 
divided between them all the crews but that of 
Captain M’Clure, which remained on the “North 
Star.” 

With this vessel he returned home via BaflSn’s 
Bay, past the coast of Greenland, and thus the cap- 
tain himself was the first to traverse the entire 
length of the Northwest Passage. 



XVIL 

MEMORABLE HOURS 

^-^^NTOXICATKD with joy, the brave polar ex- 
plorers stood on the deck of the “North 
^ Star’’ viewing with rapture the green banks 
of the Thames, where cottages gleamed through 
clumps of shady trees and sleek cattle grazed in the 
meadows — a cheerful contrast to the uncouth beasts 
of the polar regions, tumbling about on their native 
ice-fields. 

All the boons of civilization now seemed to be 
in store for the weary sailors. It was too much 
for men inured to every hardship in the northern 
wilderness and solitude, and their feelings over- 
whelmed them. They were like children, some 
weeping, others giving vent to their joy in boister- 
ous transports of delight. 

137 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


138 

As soon as it was learnt that Captain M’ Glare’s 
expedition had returned with the “North Star,’’ 
people flocked to the ship to greet the intrepid ex- 
plorers. 

Next came the members of the families of the 
officers and men of the expedition. Words cannot 
describe their affectionate meetings, nor the deep 
pain of those who looked for a beloved father, hus- 
band or son only to learn that he had found a grave 
in the frozen North. 

Harold spied in vain for a known face. Many 
persons shook his hand fervently and bade him 
heartily welcome back to old England, but they 
were all strangers to him. 

His heart was heavy, tears flowed and joy was 
turned to anxiety as he thought of all the changes 
that might have taken' place in his own country 
during all the years he had had no news from his 
home. 

When the formal reception by the admiralty 
had taken place and the crew had been paid off, 
Harold asked to be relieved from further duty. 

A steamer was about to leave for Gothenburg, 
and by taking that he would beat the mails and 
have the pleasure of taking his family by surprise. 

He looked up his friend, the missionary, who 


MBMORABIvE HOURS 


139 


had returned on board and was busy packing his 
belongings. Stepping into his cabin, Harold ex- 
tended his hand and said in almost inaudible tones: 

“In bidding you goodbye, I wish to thank you 
for all that you have done for me. If I return 
home, as I hope to do, a better man than when I 
went away, I owe it all to you.” 

“No, my son, not to me. It was the hand of 
the Almighty which carried us both through and 
gave us to drink of the same living water, for we 
both drank life from the same rock, namely Christ 
Jesus. When the storm raged and the sea was 
about to swallow us up, you often saw me read 
from this little volume.” 

He drew from his pocket a wellworn copy of 
the Bible and, seating himself at the table, wrote 
on the fly-leaf these words: 

“Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of the 
waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone 
over me. Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? 
and why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope 
thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is 
the health of my countenance, and my God.” 
Psalms xlii. 7, 12. 

Weeping in silence, Harold embraced his dear 


140 


run FORTUNES OF LIFE 


teacher and then hurried up on deck, where Bryant 
awaited him. 

Their clothes, like those of the whole crew, 
being worn and in very bad repair, the two looked 
more like beggars than participants in a royal arc- 
tic expedition as they entered a clothing house, 
where they were quickly rehabilitated from head 
to foot. 

“There, now,” said Bryant, critically eyeing 
his young friend, “you are as fine as any dandy in 
Eon don. Well, shall we go and see the captain 
now ?’ ’ 

“All right.” 

They passed on through the streets, still dizzy- 
headed from being plunged out of eternal silence 
into this whirlpool of noise — rumbling wheels, clang- 
ing bells, shrieking whistles, clattering hoofs and 
the busy hum of this human beehive. 

They finally reached the house where Captain 
M’Clure lived with his friend Captain Kellet. 

The former received Harold with the cordiality 
natural to him and thanked him in a few unfor- 
getable words for the long time they had spent 
together. 

“It pains me,” said Captain M’Clure, “that 
you are already going to leave us. But do not for- 


memorable hours 


I4I 

get that in me you will always have a friend who, 
in case of need, will do all that he can to further 
your welfare.' ‘You will probably, like myself, 
sometimes in your thoughts go back to the “In- 
vestigator,” where she lies forsaken in the Bay of 
God’s Mercy. Then we shall both thank God for 
having rescued us from the selfsame perils. We 
did not attain the object for which we started out, 
that of finding Franklin and his followers, and I 
fear they are not now alive, but even though we 
failed in that, yet we penetrated the ice-belt lying 
north of the American continent for the first time 
and’ achieved many results of importance to science. 
— But,” with a hasty glance at his watch, “I am 
just going to pay a visit to Lady Franklin. Will 
you gentlemen join me? I am sure she will be glad 
to meet you.” 

“With the greatest pleasure, sir,” said Harold 
with a bow. 

After walking several squares, they reached an 
elegant residence. The door was opened to them 
by a servant in black livery, who took their cards 
and led the way to the reception room. 

The room was handsomely furnished. Above 
a luxurious couch hung a life-size portrait of Sir 
John Franklin, and several pictures of ships were 


142 


THK FORTUNES OF LIFE 


scattered about on the tapestried walls. Small mod- 
els of vessels and nautical instruments adorned the 
great mantelpiece of white marble and were arranged 
at the base of several gorgeous gilt-framed mirrors. 

But Harold soon gave his attention wholly to 
the lady who entered the room, attired in deep 
mourning. 

Eady Franklin’s face was pale, and seemed still 
more so by contrast with the weeds she wore, but 
there was energy and resolution in her countenance. 
She was a woman who, despite her profound sor- 
row, pursued her purposes with a firm hand and a 
watchful eye. She had fitted out several relief ex- 
peditions on her own account and never tired of 
urging her countrymen by word and deed to aid in 
the search for the lost expedition led by her hus- 
band. 

Captain M’Clure having introduced the young 
Swede, she took him by the hand saying she highly 
appreciated the fact that he, a foreigner, had risked 
his life in this same cause. 

“You return to your home,” said she after 
conversing a while, “and may you there find your 
near and dear ones all well and happy.” A tear 
trickled down her cheek. “Give my regards to your 
mother and tell her for me how well she deserves 


MKMORABI,K HOURS 


143 


so worthy a son, but that I envy her the joy of 
being reunited to him. Here, my young friend,” 
she took a precious ring from her finger, “take this 
as a keepsake to remind you of Sir John Franklin 
and his sorrowful widow.” 

Deeply moved, Harold could only press her 
hand to his lips without uttering a word. 

Captain M’Clure clasped his hand warmly, and 
with a bow Harold left the room. 

He had an appointment with Bryant at a certain 
restaurant, where the two stanch friends were to 
dine together before Harold boarded the steamer for 
Gothenburg. 

Bryant was at the appointed place ahead of 
Harold and informed him that the vessel would not 
leave until early the next morning. 

“You must, therefore,” said he, “come up and 
take a cup of tea with me and my sister, and I 
will then see you to the boat.” 

After having dined and smoked a cigar, Bryant 
took his friend by the arm and both walked in 
silence until they reached a little house not far from 
the river. 

The door was opened by Bryant’s sister, a 
pleasant little body. 

“Haven’t i had the pleasure of seeing you 


144 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


before?” inquired Harold after having been intro- 
duced. 

“Yes, I remember you well. You are the young 
Swede who visited Mr. Ronnberg once or twice. 
He then lived with one of my friends, a lady who 
was ill at the time. I was there helping her and 
so happened to open the door for you. I felt sorry 
for you, for although I did not then know just 
what sort of fellow Ronnberg was, still I did not 
think him fit company for a decent young man, as 
you looked to be.” 

“Miss Bryant, pray tell me what became of 
him.” 

“Oh, he disappeared one day, without paying 
for his lodging. I am inclined to believe that his 
employer suffered loss on his account, too. Now 
he is in America, I understand.” 

“And do you know anything about Einden- 
stam?” 

“Oh, yes, the young lieutenant. He seemed 
to be an estimable young man, good at heart but 
easily led astray. What became of him I don’t 
know, but he impressed me as being an idler.” 

“You may talk more about your mutual ac- 
quaintances later; now come with me, Eindahl — 
they are waiting.” 


MKMORABI,K HOURS 


145 


So saying, Bryant went before and opened the 
door to a cozy little parlor. There, to his surprise, 
Harold found several of his comrades from the 
“Investigator,” gathered to spend with Harold his 
last evening in England. 

They had a very pleasant evening together, 
these men, who had shared the dangers of five long 
years in the Arctics, enduring cold, hunger, priva- 
tions and other hardships, for the safe deliverance 
from which they once more joined in praise and 
thanksgiving to the Eord. One by one the events 
passed in review; joy and sorrow were in turn re- 
flected in their features, which still bore unmistak- 
able traces of fearful ravages. 

They sat talking together until a late hour. 
At last, Bryant took the Bible from the shelf and 
read a chapter, followed by the singing of a hymn, 
which Dr. Miertsching, the chaplain, had so often 
sung to his guitarr during stormy nights in the 
far North. Nor were the weatherbeaten heroes 
ashamed of the tears that trickled down their 
sunken cheeks as they sang. 

When the party broke up, they all went to- 
gether over to the river. 

On the bank of the Thames Harold shook his 
comrades’ hands in a last farewell and jumped into 


14-6 


THB FORTUNES OF FIFE 


a boat. Three ringing cheers were heard in the 
stilly night. 

“God be with you all!” Harold called out, and 
amid the waving of hats and varicolored handker- 
chiefs the boat carried him to the steamer. 



XVIIL 

NEWS 

a stiff breeze the steamer was about to round 
Skagen Point about four o’clock in the after- 
^ noon. In the distance was sighted another 
steamer, rocking on the waves, but making no head- 
way. Soon she gave the signal of distress. 

The Britisher stopped and lowered a couple of 
boats. Harold got into one of them, and soon 
reached the distressed steamer, which had been dis- 
abled by a serious break in the machinery. All 
on board, especially the passengers, had been an- 
xiously watching for a vessel to heave in sight. 

The women and children were first put into 
the boats and brought on board the British steamer, 
whereupon one boat returned. Harold again boarded 
the disabled vessel and there found two young ladies 

147 


148 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


who had remained to leave room for those more 
anxious than they. Wrapped in long tourist cloaks, 
the two shapely figures stood leaning on the guard 
rail. They were veiled and one of the women, who 
bore mourning, had her face entirely concealed. 

An elderly gentleman, a German, was with 
them. He approached Harold and entrusted the 
ladies to his care. 

“One of them is very frail,” said he, and re- 
quested that she be provided wdth every comfort 
possible. 

This Harold politely agreed to and offered her 
his arm. At a lurch of the vessel she was about 
to fall, when he took her in his arms and carried 
her down into the boat, where he wrapped a trav- 
eling shawl about her. The other two followed. 

Another boat returned for the crew% and the 
disabled vessel was taken in tow. 

It was a warm, balmy September day, and at 
nightfall the wind died down, making it possible 
for the passengers to remain comfortably on deck. 
By ord^r of the captain, mattresses were brought 
and beds made up for the rescued passengers, for 
whom cabins could not be provided. 

The delicate young lady lay wrapped in shawls, 
and her companion afforded her every attention. 


KEWS 


149 


The German gentleman was constantly convers- 
ing with the young ladies and with Harold. The 
strangers asked many questions regarding the place 
of the disaster and the risk of drifting on shoals, a 
danger which had caused them great anxiety. 

“Well, let us see,” said Harold in English, 
and drew forth his pocketbook, in which he carried 
a small chart. 

While he was studying that, the pocketbook 
fell out of his hand and dropped among the folds 
of the shawls. The patient picked it up, looked 
at it and turned pale. 

“Are you not well?” inquired the German. 

“Yes, but ...” holding out the pocketbook 
to Harold, “how did this come into your possession ? 
Tell me, is he dead? Haven’t the explorers re- 
turned?” 

“Ellen!” exclaimed Harold as he sank down 
beside her. 

The German made a sign to the lady in black 
to leave the two alone. 

Composing himself, Harold inquired about his 
parents, if they were well and how they were doing. 

“Yes, thank God,” said Ellen, smiling through 
her tears, “when last I heard from home, they 
were all well.” 


150 


FORTUNES OF EIFE 


“And you are out traveling?” Harold asked in 
a surprised tone. 

“Yes, I have been away from home for several 
months,” Ellen explained, adjusting herself on the 
mattress, while her brother tucked the shawls and 
blankets around her and seated himself on a steamer 
chair. 

“There, now,- tell me all about home.” 

“I would rather hear about you. When did 
you get back to Europe?” 

“Haven’t you read the papers?” 

“Oh yes, I barely knew that the expedition 
had returned, nothing more. These five years have 
been terrible. All the world said you would never 
come back.” 

Her lips trembled as she spoke, and the mem- 
ory of her sufferings stood vividly before her. 

Harold tried to calm her with the cheering re- 
flection that all danger was now past. He had 
much to tell her, but that he had to put off, for 
he must know at once how his sister had become 
so much improved as to be able to travel. 

“When I last heard from home,” he added, 
“the doctor gave little hope.” 

“Yes, he did say that travel would do me 


NKWS 


151 


good, and it was Serena, next to Providence, that 
gave me the opportunity.” 

She pointed to the lady in black, who raised 
her veil. 

“Serena!” exclaimed Harold, then caught him- 
self and added, with a humble bow: “Pardon me 
— Miss Ornshield.” 

“Please do call me Serena,” she gently pleaded; 
“we are old playmates, you know, and related, be- 
sides, for your mother and my father were cousins.” 

Serena again withdrew. An elderly lady had 
lost her handbag, and she helped her find it. 

In the meantime, KHen told her story: 

“Serena’s father died last spring, and, having 
heard that the doctor had advised me to go to some 
German bath, she. wrote me a letter proposing a trip 
to Wiesbaden. She said that she needed the treat- 
ment herself, but did not wish to go alone. That 
was kind of her, for father never could have saved 
enough to send me, especially as I had to have an 
attendant. Well, we went there, and the water did 
so much for me that we were then able to travel 
around Germany quite a little, and all this I owe 
to Serena.” 

“But you forget the doctor,” the latter inter- 
posed. “It’s the old gentleman standing yonder,” 


152 


THK FORTUNES OF FIFE 


she said, turning to Harold and motioning to their 
German traveling companion. “He likes to see a 
bit of Sweden and has been very kind and helpful 
to us all the way.” 

“It was Ellen’s physician, then, who entrusted 
her to my care. Pardon me, ladies, I will return 
in a moment.” 

With that Harold went over to the doctor and 
expressed his gratitude. The two men seemed in- 
terested in one another, but Harold hurried back, 
anxious to hear about those at home. 

“You asked whether Valborg is at home? No, 
she is in Rome.” 

“In Rome! Is it possible? How was that 
brought about?” 

“Eisten, and I’ll tell you.” 

Ellen was very much interested in what she 
was about to narrate, and her cheeks glowed as she 
spoke. 

Serena interrupted her with the suggestion that 
the evening was growing too chilly for the delicate 
girl to remain longer on deck, and proposed that 
they retire to their cabin. 

Doctor Mildenberg was consulted. He looked 
around. The sun had set; the brighter stars were 
beginning to appear in the clear September sky, 


NEWS 


153 


and the beacon lights on the Swedish coast came 
in view. The vessel was nearing the entrance to 
Gothenburg harbor, and as the breeze was still warm, 
the doctor gave Ellen permission to stay on deck, 
as long as she did not feel chilly. 

Harold brought his heav}^ plaid and tucked it 
around the invalid, then resumed his place, and 
Serena was also induced to be seated, whernpon 
Ellen went on: 

“We wrote you about Valborg meeting Pro- 
fesspr Arnell in the old basketmaker’s cottage. 
Well, after that she went to Stockholm, as you 
know, to continue her art studies with him.” 

“Indeed! I didn’t know that. You must re- 
member, Ellen, that I have heard nothing from 
home for five years. You don’t realize what that 
means.’’ 

“I dbn’t? Well, mamma does, at any rate. 
Her white hair will tell you the depth of a moth- 
er’s sorrow and anxiety for a son, of whose fate 
she had been kept in ignorance for so long a time. 

As for myself, I have been waiting hopefully 
all these years for your safe return. Often in my 
dreams I have had assurance that God, who still 
performs miracles, would bring you back to us, and 
now I am so glad my hope was not put to shame. 


154 


THK FORTUNES OF FIFE 


— Oh, yes, you want to know about Valborg. Well, 
she liked Stockholm at first, but finding the artistic 
circles narrowing as her own mind expanded, she 
longed for a more cosmopolitan community of art- 
ists, like Diisseldorff, but as it was all papa could 
do to keep her at Stockholm, a foreign trip was 
out of the question. In the fall she came back 
home and worked away in her little room at.Sea- 
wich. Our family treasury was very low at the 
time, and Valborg hardly thought it right of her 
to go on waisting time and money on her hobby, 
since it yielded nothing in return. 

“She was thinking seriously of taking up some 
more profitable occupation, but feared she would be 
a greater failure in anything else than painting, and 
when a couple of her artist friends at the academy 
left for Diisseldorff, her desire to go there gave her 
no peace. 

“So Christmas eve came — I remember it as 
though it had been yesterday. We all had prepared 
some little gifts for one another. Mamma sat in 
the armchair, silent and dejected. I could tell by 
her deep sighs that she was thinking of you and 
mourning you as dead and buried in the eternal 
snows. She cast an anxious look at Valborg, who 
tried her best to look cheerful, and then she turned 


NEWS 


155 


her tearful gaze toward me, where I lay helpless 
on my couch. 

“The Christmas tree was lit in the next room, 
where my Sunday school pupils had just received 
their little presents. 

“I thought of our last Christmas at Ornholm. 
I saw before me the woods, the frozen lake, the 
snow pyramids, the blind old man, in short, all the 
scenes of that fatal day. Just then there was a 
knock at the door, and a masked figure entered. 

“We were astonished that any one should think 
of us, and our hands trembled as we received the 
packages that this strange Chris Cringle distributed 
among us, bowing deeply all the while. 

“Valborg was the first to open her parcel, a 
large envelope with many seals. Within was a 
thousand- crown banknote and a strip of paper with 
the words: ‘For the trip to Diisseldorff.’ You can 
imagine Valborg’ s delight. The rest of us received 
fine presents also, but Valborg’ s good fortune hardly 
gave us time to think of anything else. The thought 
of her leaving home passed our vision like a flitting 
shadow, but in view of the overwhelming goodness 
of Providence, it would have been wrong of us to 
dwell on anything sad on that happy, memorable 
night.” 


I'HK FORI^UNKS OF LIFF 


156 

“Tell me, Ellen, where did that money come 
from?” 

“That we did not know for some time, but at 
last we found out.” 

Ellen glanced toward Serena, who blushed and 

said: 

“It was a mere accident. While visiting Stock- 
holm with my father, I formed the acquaintance of 
Professor Arnell. He mentioned Valborg’s name 
by chance, and seeing that I became interested, he 
told me about her ambition, regretting very much 
that she had no means to continue her art studies 
either in Sweden or abroad. No one knows how I 
suffered when my father put a stop to my corres- 
pondence with your family. But about that time 
I received a small inheritance from my godmother, 
and that money my father allowed me to use as I 
pleased. So I wrote to the old basketmaker ...” 

“Another old acquaintance,” Ellen interposed, 
giving Serena a gentle pat on the hand. 

“Well, he arranged the rest, and I suppose he 
was the man who did the Santa Claus act.” 

“That was literally returning good for evil,” 
said Harold, deeply moved by Serena’s story. 

“You might know Valborg was happy,” Ellen 
resumed. “In the spring she went abroad. She 


NEWS 


157 


remained some time in Diisseldorff and worked very 
hard. She was considered an artist of great prom- 
ise and succeeded in selling several pictures to ad- 
vantage. Then she began to consider even Diissel- 
dorff a bit provincial, and aspired to the studios of 
the Eternal City. Just then an art scholarship sti- 
pend went begging, and through Professor Arnell 
she secured it and went to Rome. 

“There Valborg got into a freer atmosphere 
which agreed perfectly with her artistic ideals. She 
was highly delighted, and we at home would have 
been perfectly happy too, just so we had known 
something about 

Plarold smiled and stroked Ellen’s tiny white 
hand, which he was all the time holding in his 
own. 

“Well, go on,” he urged. 

“It was last winter that Valborg went to Rome. 
She had scarcely become settled, when a kind 
Swedish gentleman visited her studio. He said he 
had heard of his talented young countrywoman and 
wished to form her acquaintance and look at her 
canvases. He gave his name as Weidenfelt.’’ 

“Count?” Harold inquired. 

“Yes. After making a couple of calls at her 
studio, he invited her to the hotel where he lived 


158 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


with liis family. He wanted her to paint his daugh- 
ter’s portrait, but wished the two to meet before 
he gave her the commission.” 

“Well, how did she find Miss Theresina? As 
beautiful and adorable as the Seawich people had 
made her out to be, I hope?” 

“Yes, indeed. Valborg wrote that she reminded 
her of a madonna by Guido Reni, but alas, the 
poor girl was in such feeble health that she could 
rarely leave her armchair and was unable to receive 
visitors for more than a few minutes out of the 
day. So the count suggested that Valborg move 
to the hotel. There she lived with the Weidenfelts 
until the portrait was finished, and it was the best 
work she had ever done. In the meantime There- 
sina’ s brother Eginhard came home. He was very 
devoted to his sister and took great interest in the 
art of painting.” 

“You say, he was — is the girl dead?” 

“Wait and you shall hear. When the portrait 
was finished, Theresina refused to part from Val- 
borg, and so Count Weidenfelt equipped a studio 
for her at the hotel. She got little time for paint- 
ing after that, for Theresina sank rapidly and de- 
manded Valborg’ s constant attention. She took 


NEWS 


159* 


turns with the others in watching over her to the 
last — and now she is gone. 

“Valborg had become very much attached to 
Theresina, and after her death she also was taken 
sick. It was brought on by a slight cold, but grief 
over the loss of her friend and overexertion in her 
behalf had broken her down.” 

Doctor Mildenberg, who had heard the word 
“cold” mentioned, but understanding little else of 
the conversation, now suggested that it was time 
for Ellen to retire and take no further chances in 
the night air. It would take a couple of hours yet 
^before the steamer could reach her dock. 

“But how did Valborg’s illness turn out?” 
Harold asked, as he helped Serena pick up all the 
shawls and blankets. 

“Oh, she was very much better the last time I 
heard from her,” was Ellen’s reassuring reply. 



XIX. 

THE RETURN 


* N a fine afternoon a few days later, a light 
carriage and a man on horseback swung past 
the two gnarled oak trees that guarded the 
road leading up to the Ornholm mansion. The 
travelers were Serena, Ellen and Harold, and, the 
gate, which ten years before had closed between 
the two last named and the Ornholm estate, was 
now opened again to all three. 

Then they had departed amid the tears of the 
people on the estate, gathered to bid them fare- 
well, while they themselves felt as though the world 
held no more happiness for them. Now they re- 
turned as the guests of Serena, both quite changed 
within and without. Harold had made an hon- 
ored name for himself, while Ellen had learnt 
i6o 


THE RETURN 


i6i 


how to be useful and shed blessings on those 
about her. 

When they again saw their childhood home, 
they were overwhelmed by a flood of feelings that 
set their brains in a whirl. So pained by unpleas- 
ant recollections did they seem that Serena almost 
regretted having invited them to come with her to 
Ornholm. 

Those of the subordinates who met their young 
mistre^is greeted her quite heartily, yet Harold ob- 
served a surprising change in the people of the 
estate since Mr. Eindahl left. Then they were 
prosperous and happy; now they looked poverty- 
stricken and cheerless. The farms were badly run 
down and the children playing outside the little 
cottages were dirty and neglected. 

Serena knew this, and realized the fact more 
fully this day than ever before. .She would have 
tried to excuse this condition, if she could have 
done so without reflecting on the memory of her 
father. The passed on through the great pine for- 
est. Even that was changed. The cutting had 
been done in senseless fashion, leaving nothing but 
worthless young trees to protect a second growth. 
They passed the lake, on whose glassy surface they 
had whiled away many a merry day in winter sports. 


i 62 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


It now lay placidly reflecting the blue sky and the 
rowan-trees with their cluster of bright red berries. 
At the landing the boat lay moored — the same that 
had so often borne them over the water, but now 
in bad repair and looking very unsafe. The bath- 
house at the water’s edge also showed signs of the 
ravages of time. 

They rode up the slope alongside the orchard 
and reached the green lawn where on that memor- 
able evening they had set up the Christmas tree 
and erected the pyramids of snow, which started 
all the trouble and caused them to chase away the 
blind old beggar. 

There were tears in Harold’s and Ellen’s eyes, 
which befogged their vision, and, lost in recollec- 
tions of the past, they hardly saw the old manse 
until they stopped in front of the familiar old 
piazza. 

Now they were suddenly brought back to the 
present. Harold swung himself out of the saddle 
and rushed up the steps to throw himself into the 
arms of — his father and mother. 

The tall and inposing figure of Mr. Lindahl 
was bent with age and his hair whitened with cares. 
The old lady, aged more by sorrows than by the 
lapse of years, was still beautiful. The son affec- 


THE return 


tionately stroked her gray locks beneath the dainty 
white lace cap. 

The joy of meeting was overwhelming, and it 
was some moments before she was able to find 
words for her emotions. 

“My own big boy, is it really you?” was all 
that she could say. 

She kissed his forehead and held his head 
between her hands as if he were still a little lad 
leaning against her lap. 

“How could you live through it all?” she 
asked with as great anxiety, as though Harold 
were still in the shackles of the polar ice. 

“Oh, we managed somehow. Of course, my 
joints are a little stiff, and the hands,” — he held 
them up — “are still tender from the cold, but that 
matters not so long as I have all my fingers left, 
and now that I am back home with you, mother, 
what more could I wish. 

By gentle force she made him sit by her side 
on the piazza, and while she held his hands in 
hers as if to warm them, she looked him over with 
an air of motherly pride. His handsome, manly 
face still bore traces of hunger and suffering, but 
this only made it more interesting by stamping it 
with the seal of character. He was tall of stature, 


THE FORTUNES OF UIFE 


164 


like his father, and his whole bearing was that of 
rugged manhood. 

“He has changed, to be sure, but still, what 
a handsome fellow he is!” she exclaimed in the 
frank manner of fond mothers. 

Eaughing at her naive flattery, Harold told 
her, if she wished to see something really pretty, 
to look down over the banister. 

She leaned over and saw Ellen still sitting in 
the carriage, from which the horses had been 
unhitched, watching the joyous group on the piazza. 
She greeted her with a nod and a smile, and in an 
instant Harold was at the girl’s side. 

He asked her pardon for neglecting her, and 
she said that she knew he would not forget her 
and so had allowed no one else to assist her. 

The parents rejoiced to see with how much 
greater ease their daughter was able to move about. 
She walked up the steps leaning but slightly on 
Harold’s arm. Her mother met her with open 
arms. They kissed fondly, and Ellen next hurried 
over to her father, giving him a like greeting and 
telling him in the next breath that Dr. Mildenberg 
gave her to believe she would soon be entirely well. 

In the meantime Serena had arranged the table. 


THE RETURN 


165 

and, opening the doors to the dining room, she 
asked them all to sit down to a late breakfast. 

The travelers did full justice to the palatable 
and substantial Swedish dishes. After hearty en- 
joyment of the first meal in the old home, Harold 
inquired how the parents happened to be at Orn- 
holm at this time. 

“You see,” Serena explained, “when my 
father died, I was entirely alone in the management 
of affairs, for he never had any assistant, preferring 
to superintend everything himself. Needing an 
experienced manager, I picked up courage and 
wrote to your father, beseeching him to take pity 
on me and move back here. By a certain fortunate 
circumstance — ’ ’ 

“You know from my last letter, Ellen,” Mrs. 
Eindahl interrupted, “that Valborg is engaged to 
be married to Eginhard Weidenfelt.” 

“Why no, that letter never reached me. So 
they are really engaged. Well, I had my surmises.” 

“His sister’s dying wish was that Valborg 
should fill her place in the home,” Mr. Eindahl 
explained. “The count wrote me that for that 
reason he consented to his son’s choice all the more 
cheerfully. Thereby my position with respect to 
Count Weidenfelt was materially changed. He 


THE FORTUNES OF FIFE 


1 66 


desired to dispose of several of his estates in 
Sweden, and having found a buyer for Seawich, 
I suggested that be sold first. The purchaser took 
possession at once, making it possible for me to 
accept Serena’s offer this fall. All this came so 
suddenly, that we have not yet got quite settled.” 

“And besides, my dear Ellen,” Serena inter- 
posed, ‘T wanted to give you a little surprise. 
That is why I said nothing to you about my uncle’s 
last letter, which decided the matter. I am only 
sorry, dear aunt,” she added, turning to Mrs. Lin- 
dahl, “that the rooms in the wing are not in such 
condition as I would have wished, — well, Iv’e been 
away from home, you know.” 

“Which wing is it? Not the one where the 
fire was, I hope,” Ellen inquired. 

“Do you think I am so thoughtless,” Serena 
rejoined, in mild rebuke. 

“The rooms are splendid — a real doll’s house,” 
Mrs. Lindahl assured her. 

“The people here are so delighted to have you 
all back,” Serena remarked exuberantly. 

With Serena, Ellen at once proceeded to make 
up plans for her school. They discussed what 
they had seen in that line during their travels in 


THE RETURN 


167 


Germany. The two friends rejoiced in the fact 
that from now on they would not be separated. 

“And as for Harold,” Serena spoke with some 
embarrassment of her naughty and overbearing play- 
mate of past days---“he will stay here over winter, 
I trust. Surely, Aunt Eiudahl is not going to let 
him ship away from us now.” 

“Serena, you have braced up wonderfully,” 
said Harold, noting with a pleased expression the 
change in the sedate and oldish little miss he used 
to know. 

A flush suffused Serena’s cheeks, her eyes 
sparkled and her heart leaped. She was about to 
return the compliment when a servant interrupted 
them by handing her the mailbag. It contained, 
among other things, a letter to the elder Eindahl. 

Count Weidenfelt wrote him, stating that since 
Valborg wished to live as near Ornholm as possible, 
he was thinking of purchasing Baron Eindenstam’s 
Norrefors estate, which he had seen advertised to 
be sold at public auction. He left it to Mr. Ein- 
dahl to bid it in for him in case he would not be 
able to attend the sale in person. 

The letter, which was mailed at Gothenburg, 
concluded by saying the younger Weidenfelt and 


THE FORTUNES OF LIFE 


1 68 


his betrothed expected to make a trip to Ornholm 
in a few days. 

Serena hastened to extend an invitation, asking 
the baron to accompany the young people on the 
prospective visit. 

They came in the middle of September. The 
days were most charming— the afterglow of the 
summer. The lake held up its mirror to the gaudy 
autumnal landscape. In the warm glow of the sun 
the hollyhocks stood like miniature may-poles en- 
twined with flowers, the astors bloomed profusely 
and the mignonette and late-blooming honeysuckle 
filled the air with fragrance and lured the belated 
butterflies. 

In honor of the occasion the table was set in 
the great hall of the mansion. The 3^oung hostess 
was seated between the elder Lindahl and Count 
Weidenfelt, who had Mrs. Lindahl to his right. 
There was festivity in the very air. The j^oung 
people were bouyant with hope, and even to the 
old folks summer seemed to have come again with 
sunshine and blossoms. 

It was a feast of memories and hopes in which 
stories of travels and of past adventures comingled 
with plans for the future, and at last all joined in 
giving thanks to Him, who through many vicissi- 


THE RETURN 


169 


tudes and shifting fortunes at length brought them 
together in the d^ar old home. 

* * * 

I had not visited Ornholm since the time of 
Squire Thorsten Ornshield, until I was invited to 
attend the wedding of Serena Ornshield and Harold 
Lindahl. The ceremony took place in the little 
parish church across the lake, and a sweeter bride 
and a statelier bridegroom I have never seen. 

Valborg had been married for several years and 
was now the happy mother of two little Weiden- 
felts. She and her husband enjoy life at Norrefors, 
but they have a great longing for sunny Italy, and 
next winter will doubtless find them there. 

Ellen, though frail and delicate, is much im- 
proved and moves about with perfect ease. She 
has no idea of giving up her mission, which she 
finds rich in blessings. She alternates between the 
old house and that of her sister and has her hands 
full of work caring for her little pupils and looking 
after the poor and the sick on the two estates. 

I spent many pleasant days last summer in 
those pleasant homes, as an old friend of the family, 
and then jotted down the bits of family history as I 
heard it from the lips of the young folks themselves. 


THE FORTUNES OF EIFE 


170 


To you, my young friends everywhere, I here- 
with give the story of their struggles and triumphs, 
and may you derive therefrom the same wholesome 
lessons that the Ornshield family learned from 
experience. 


Pictures of Swedish Life, 

or Svea and her Children, by Mrs. 

Woods Baker, Author of “Our Elder 
Brother,” “Salt,” “The Babes in the 
Basket.” 8vo, 408 pages, 75 half-tone 
illustrations, including 24 fiill page 
plates. Size 6Hx9J4* Illuminated cloth 
covers. Price S2.50. 

The Author, who lived many years 
in Sweden, presents her impressions in 
an entertaining style. 

This work will make a fascinating 
gift for the holidays and other occa- 
sions. 

Contents; I. Svea’s Children of the Present. 

Shaking Hands with Svea. The Old Homestead. What Svea 
tells her Children. The Gate- ways. W^ater Utilized. Stock- 
holm. Seeing the King. The Queen’s Monument. Two 
Poets. “The Uncles.” 

The Homes. The Red Cottage. The Castle. What’s in a 
Name? A Swedish Household. The Swedish Language. Sun. 
day Morning. Sunday Afternoon. Fredrika Bremer. The 
Dean’s Rebuke. A Pair of Poor-houses. A Swedish Winter, 
Summer. Joy and Sorrow. The Seven Ages. 

What Svea does for her Children. Maternal Care. Upsala. 
Emigration. 

Roundabout and Northwards. The Swedish Islands. Dale- 
carlia. The Finns. The Lapps. 

II. Svea’s Children of the Past. Early Days. 

t!/naerground History. The Great-Grandmother. A Viking 
at Home. An Old Rover. Sweden’s First Missionary, 

Royal Saint. An Uncrowned King. Magnus Lock-the-Barn. 
Santa Brigitta. Margareta’s Union. 

Royal Reformers and Sons of Glory. The Father of his 
Country. Not a Wise Son. A Stern Brother. The Recreant 
Grandson. A Strong Hand. Svea’s Dearest Son. Gustaf 
Adolf’s Daughter. A Bold Exploit. Th6 Practical Man. 
A Military Genius. 

The One Star Period. Short-lived Honor. A Flessian. A 
Good Carpenter. A Drama. A Wanderer. Duke Karl. 

The Bernadottes. A More than Crown Prince. The FatL^* 
of Two Kings. The Last Karl. 



THE RUBY RING or Truth will Prevail. From the 
Swedish of Emily Nonnen. With seven illust- 
rations. Cloth. Price 50 cents. 


MERRY DAYS.. A Collection of Stories for Child- 
ren. Translated from the Swedish With selected 
Poems. Profusely Illustrated. Boards. Price 
cents. 

FORQET“ME=NOT. Birthday Book with Scripture 
Texts for every day in the year. With flowers 
in colors for each month, and blank pages for 
entry of Birthdays. Cloth, gilt edges. Small 
size 60, large size 75 cents. 

STORIES FROM THE BIBLE, in simple words for 
the young. With illustrations both in black 
and in many beautiful Colors. Four different 
books, each with different stories. Price, each 
25 cents. 

From BETHLEHEM to GOLGOTHA. The Life of 
Jesus in Pictures and Stories. In four parts, 
with illustrations in colors. Price, 20 cents each. 



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